FauX
by Idream3223
Summary: What if you could have superpowers? There is a new drug on the market called FauX and for the right price you can see for yourself what it's like to be a vampire, werewolf, fairy, or shifter. The only thing that might save you is VBI Agent Eric Northman and SIN Agent Sookie Stackhouse who are in a race to find the source and stop the FauX from exposing all Supes to the world.
1. Unbelievable

**FauX-Unbelievable**

The way of all things is simply that it is easier to do them the same way they have always been done. This is true of most things, even if they are broken.

This applies to the supernatural as it does to the natural world.

Around the time that the natural world was figuring out they needed agencies to enforce the governing bodies' rules on the populace, the supernatural world got the same notion. As the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other agencies came to be so did the **V**ampire **B**ureau of **I**nvestigation, **S**upernatural **I**ntelligence **N**etwork, **F**ae **A**ction **C**ommittee and the **C**ouncil **E**nforcement **T**eam.

As with the human organizations their supernatural counterparts had specific areas they focused on when policing their populace. The VBI focused on violation of vampire laws, and retained the right to cross kingdoms in the United States to enforce the law as needed. The SIN focused on the crimes of the supernatural races around the world and worked with kingdoms internationally to keep the peace and to keep the human race from finding out about their existence before they were ready to be revealed.

The vampire revelation a decade before had been a bit bumpy, with The Fellowship of the Sun rising to power in their shadow. The rest of the supernatural world was in a holding pattern to see what the full scope of fall out would before taking that same risk themselves. They had the time after all, most of them enjoyed longer than human life spans.

Sookie had joined SIN a decade before because she wanted to make a difference. At least that was what she said on her application. The truth in her heart was that she signed up because she wanted to kick some ass and take some names. It was a challenge physically, and to her magics that she had already spent three hundred years honing.

Before SIN the only thing that had been challenged was her patience. The life she was born to was not the life she wanted. After years of arguing with her family she had put her foot down and run away in the middle of the night. A name change, and some favors pulled in had gotten her foot in the door, and after she had proven her skills and talents she had risen quickly up the chain of command to lead her own field team.

Her rise had been remarkably fast, and there was some envy among her peers, which were culled from a range of supernatural races, not just the Fae. What none of them knew was that if she had come in with her true name she could have risen to power within the agency in half the time. Her true name came with privilege, and it bespoke her skills and talents in ways that would not have required a burden of proof.

That she had to work so hard to prove herself was just fine with Sookie, it was better to take the slow way round than eat another water cress sandwich and pretend that she gave the slightest fuck about the upcoming Fall Ball. She had buried those memories in a trunk and shoved it into the corner of her mind never to be opened. It was too risky when you worked with telepaths and mind readers to do anything other than immerse herself in the role she had chosen to play.

Thus, Sookie Stackhouse was born. A fairy half breed from the backwoods of Louisiana. Late to know her heritage and bloom her spark she dropped a zero and become a thirty year old self-educated magical red neck girl who wanted to make a difference. Her father and brother had been part of human law enforcement, and with her strong spark and quick mind she felt she could bring that same Stackhouse diligence and strength to SIN. Her boss knew the truth of course, Desmond Cataliades, the leader of SIN, had been friends with her family since she was tiny spark. He'd also been wrapped around her tiny pinky for that same amount of time. There was nothing he could deny her, and so when she ran away from Fae and donned the skin of Sookie Stackhouse he had helped her bury the old life and light the fire to this new one.

This new life is how she found herself in Dallas, dancing on the stage of vampire bar called Crème. She had been working undercover for a month, looking to make a collar for a new international drug with the street name of FauX. It had first appeared in Europe six months before and it had the supernatural world standing up and paying attention. The designer drug temporarily gave its human user supernatural gifts. So far they had found evidence of FauX vampire, shifter, fairy, demon and werewolf. The consequences were most often disastrous for the human abuser and created difficult to contain circumstances for a community that wanted desperately to stay hidden.

So far there had been six separate incidents, three in Europe, two in South America, and one here in the US, where the user had nearly exposed them. SIN's number one goal right now was to determine what FauX was, where it came from and cut it off at the source. Following that trail had led to Crème.

Sookie, through her telepathy, had been able to determine that the owner was not directly involved, but was not completely unaware of what was happening with FauX. SIN now believed the Crème was being used as a contact point for those who trafficked in the drug, so Sookie took the stage and set about showcasing her shapely form to benefit the investigation.

She knew she was supposed to feel resentful about putting herself on display like this before both the supernatural and human patrons who came to Crème each night, but in her heart she reveled in it. Dancing in a thong, bra, and a cowboy hat with six guns strapped to her sides was about as far away from frilly dress box stepping as you could get. It delighted her very soul to shake her ass and ride the pole whipping the male clientele, and the female as well, into a sexual frenzy. It made her feel beautiful and powerful to be desired by so many that she knew could never touch her, not her body and not her heart.

Here she could be and do anything she wanted as she waited for her prey. Telepathically, she culled the patrons listening as she danced in time to Emf's _Unbelievable_.

_**Fuck I'm so hard right now…**_

_**I'd take her home and show her what a real man…**_

_**Fucking slut, parading yourself around like that…**_

_**I'd like to suck those tits…**_

_**Where's dat sexy hooka at? I needs to gets me some fuckin' V!**_

That last was her co-worker at Crème, Lafayette, waiting to make a drug connection. She had tagged him as a low level offender within seconds of starting her job here, but let him slide. She wanted the bigger fish.

_**That muthafucker be late again! Shit. I bet it's 'cause his ass is so fine he thinks he can be all 'I gets there when I gets there.' His ass is fine, though. Can't argue with that, even he does piss me off!**_

Sookie suppressed a smile as she slid down the pole again before squatting and running her hands up her thighs toward her center. She liked Lafayette, despite his questionable habits. She also found his colorful way of speaking and thinking to be quite charming, if slightly uncouth. He was for the most part honest. He was what he was, an attractive original homosexual black man. What he said was what he thought. Couth or not, it was refreshing to meet someone who did not front when it came to who they were.

Sitting in the dark far corner from the stage was her back up, right hand man, werewolf and former Navy Seal, Alcide Hervaux. Crème's owner had been extremely nervous about a mysterious meeting due to go down tonight that SIN believed had to do with FauX. She had brought him in for back up. They had worked together for five years now and she trusted him with her life. He was a good man.

A good man who had the occasional thoughts about his boss that she elected to ignore for the most part.

This particular setting made it a little more difficult than usual. He knew she was a telepath. It was one of the advantages of working stake outs with him. Over the years they had developed a set of hand signals that allowed her to direct him while he communicated with her silently. She didn't think he was intending to broadcast to her at the moment, but he was as much in her thrall as the rest of the audience.

_**So fucking hot, God, is she ever going to give me a shot? Oh, when she bends over like that I could just-**_

She motioned to him to get his attention, reminding him that he needed to focus on the room and not on her ass. She couldn't see his face, but she was sure he was blushing to have been caught out like that. _**Sorry, Sook,**_ he sent back to her. Nothing else was needed to reassure her that he had his eyes back on the prize.

She took a turn on the stage and looked down to see someone standing before her. As her gaze swept him from head to toe for a moment she lost the beat of the music, and missed a step. Quick to recover though she stepped forward and started to dance just for this stranger. _All the better to see you my dear_, she thought as she shot him her best smile and continued her examination. He was tall, very tall. Six foot four or five, wearing a tan jacket and a Stetson cowboy hat. Broad shoulders sandy hair and blue eyes. Blue eyes that made her burn wherever they landed on her body.

_Vampire_, her senses told her just as she heard his thoughts for the first time.

_**So…fucking…beautiful. **_

There was nothing else. No lascivious thoughts, no comments about her outfit. No inner monologue about how he would like to take her somewhere and show her something. Just…awe. The rest of his mind was silent.

When their eyes met, he smiled at her. A real smile. She was grinding on the stage like she was riding a bucking bronco, and all he was thinking was how beautiful she was. She missed another step. _Unbelievable_, as the song says, she thought and kept dancing just for him. The rest of the room fell away, the job fell away, her fake life, and her real life all fell away. There was just those two blue eyes cutting into her and making her body do and want things that her body had never done and wanted before.

If he had crooked his finger she would have leaped off the stage and into his arms. If he had horse outside she would have climbed up behind him and rode away from this place and never looking back.

If he crooked his finger, but he didn't. Instead, he mentally shook himself and she watched a mask slide back into place.

_**No time, no fucking time,**_ she heard him think. _**Maybe after she'll let me take her for drinks.**_ After what, she wondered just as Lafayette cut into her mind again?

_**'Bout damned time yo ass showed up, hookah!**_

Oh, no. _This_ was the vampire here to sell V? Inside she cringed. That would never work. Slamming her mind shut to him and turning to dance away from tall, blonde and bad news, she pretended that what had happened had not just happened. She had a job to focus on and no time to play with dirty little vampires who broke dirty little rules.

She pretended like she was not crushed and disappointed. After a decade she had gotten good at pretending.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the owner at the door, acting way out of sorts as a tall woman swept in like she owned the place, headed for a booth marked reserved. Using her supernatural senses she picked up that this woman was a were and from the air of magic that hung about her she was also likely a witch. Signaling to Alcide that they had one on the line, she continued to dance, wanting whoever the target was waiting for to arrive before they broke cover.

She focused in on the magical were but got nothing. The target had a magical block that protected her mind from invasion. She did hear Sookie knocking though, and within moments her laser gaze zeroed in on the dancer. Before Sookie could signal to Alcide that she had been made and to move in, behind her Lafayette screamed.

"AW, FUCK NO, BITCH, I AIN'T GOIN' TO JAIL!"

Flipping around she saw the tall vampire reach out to her co-worker, attempting to calm him with glamour, but the damage had been done. The crowd moved toward the door like a stampeding herd and she lost sight of the suspect in the mass of moving people. Signaling Alcide, she leaped from the stage, pulling her not so fake guns, and started moving to the door. Cursing internally that she could not just teleport outside and remain unseen by the human crowd, she fought her way through but by the time she got to the door her suspect was nowhere to be seen.

Alcide took several deep breaths in an effort to catch her scent but came up with nothing. As she blocked her mind, she also blocked her scent.

This deep cover operation was blown. She turned back and headed inside, rolling up on the giant vampire, hell flashing in her eyes.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" Glancing around the now empty room he leaned down into her face.

"VBI, we're shutting this place down for trafficking in V." Pushing her face right back into his she let loose.

"V? Please! Your clumsy stupid VBI ass just busted a SIN operation for a single user bust! Your ass is mine for this!" He smirked at her.

"If you want my ass, there is no need to yell. I will let you have it, if you ask me nicely." CRACK! She didn't think, she just balled up her fist and punched him in the face. His head rocked back from her blow and when he turned back his fangs were fully extended and there was blood on his lip. She watched it heal, infuriated that she could not inflict more permanent damage on his beautiful smirking face. He licked his lip.

"If you like it rough, I only play the top, lover." She drew back again, but before she could swing Alcide caught her arm. She turned on him in her rage barely registering the growl from the vampire behind her.

"Sookie!" Alcide said, trying to break her out of her madness. "Sookie!" he shook her now when she didn't snap out of it right away. Before she could respond there was a blur in front of her and the vampire had Alcide by the throat, his toes barely touching the floor.

"This is between me and the lady, wolf," he growled out, his fangs still on display.

"Put him down you overbearing blood sucker!" she yelled at his back. When he did not immediately comply her hand lit up and she hit him full force in the back with a bolt of Fae light, sending both him Alcide across the room, crashing into a booth, completely demolishing it. Immediately regretting her impulsive display, she darted across the room checking Alcide. He was out cold, but breathing evenly. He would wake up in a few minutes. Then she turned to the cowboy vampire and kneeled beside him.

He had a piece of the wooden booth lodged in his side, dangerously close to his heart. Fear rose up inside her, followed closely by regret. They tasted bitter and made her stomach roll over and threaten to empty itself. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mister." Slowly, she reached down taking the wood in her hand.

"Careful," he gasped out. Her other hand reached out to soothe him, resting on his cheek.

"Shhh," she said as she teleported the wood away. He sighed in relief to have it gone. She watched his flesh heal, leaving only the tear in his clothing and bloodstains to show that there had ever been a wound. When she looked back up at his face she saw him watching her intently. She fell into his gaze again, and his mind opened to her.

_**So beautiful. Is she a fairy? I'm pretty sure she just hit me with a fairy bolt and teleported that wood out of my side.**_

Not wanting to give away her telepathy she didn't respond to his internal monologue. "You'll be fine, now," she said instead.

"What's your name?" he asked out loud.

"Sookie."

"I'm Eric." Despite everything she smiled.

"Nice to meet you."

"Is it really?" remembering how they got here she smiled again.

"Well, that's what people say when they meet for the first time."

"But is it really?" She knew what he meant. She knew what she wanted to say. She said something else instead.

"Ask me again, after we finish the paperwork and my boss yells at your boss about this cluster fuck." He smiled then, too and slowly sat up.

**Four hours and two mountains of paper work later….**

Sookie and Eric found themselves in the back of a SIN surveillance van patched into their bosses, Desmond the head of SIN and Godric the head of the VBI.

"And so," Desmond went on, "Godric and I have decided that you two should head up the joint SIN and VBI task force on FauX."

"WHAT?" Sookie and Eric said in disbelieving unison. Godric spoke then.

"This drug FauX could expose the supernatural community to the world. Desmond and I realize that in light of tonight's events it would be best for our agencies to cooperate and pool our knowledge and resources. This is not open for discussion."

"No, it is not," Desmond echoed. "From this moment on until this situation is resolved, you two are partners." The satellite connection terminated leaving Sookie and Eric in silence. After a few moments she moved to exit the back of the van. Alcide had been waiting outside.

"SIN and the VBI are setting up a joint task force to investigate FauX. Return to base and await further instruction there. I will be in touch." Alcide nodded and looked like he wanted to say more. She shook her head slightly indicating that now was not the time. He nodded stiffly and walked away. She knew she had only delayed the inevitable but, one shit storm at a time. She turned back to the van now and saw that Eric, too had stepped out.

"From the way you give orders I can see why you think you would make a better top." Her mind was still reeling from the night's events, her attraction to him, the assignment of a new partner and a million other things. This left her mouth on autopilot.

"Fuck you, Northman." He smirked and dropped his head.

"No, I don't think so, Miss Stackhouse." The way he said her name made a shiver run through her. He shouldn't say her like that. Not if this was business, and this was business. All business. Wait, what does he mean no? Did he just turn me down?

"Did you just-"

"Yes, I did just turn you down." Were vampires telepathic now? "I will not be 'fucking' you."

"Oh," she said, trying her very best not to sound disappointed and let down. Trying very hard not to remember how she had felt when she saw him for the first time. Before she could think of something to say next he vamped in front of her, pressing his body against hers as he held arms to steady her.

_**When I take you it won't be fucking.**_

"When I take you, it won't be _'fucking'_," he said softly, his lips so close to hers she thought she could feel them move against her skin as he spoke.

_**I will not be the bottom, or the top, and neither will you. I will be exactly as it should be. **_

"I will not be the bottom, or the top, and neither will you. It will be exactly as it should be." He stayed right there, and she looked up again into his eyes, and lost any response she might have had to that.

_**Now, tell me**_

"Now, tell me," he said, still not closing the near imaginary distance and completing this drive by kissing.

"Tell you what?" she asked dreamily.

_**Was it nice to meet me?**_

"Was it nice to meet me?" She meant to nod yes, but she nodded into his lips and the kiss that had been hanging on the edge, fell over. It was soft and sweet and somehow hotter than any kiss she had ever had. It lasted but a moment, but would echo through her body for days to come, along with the words she got from his mind.

_**Beautiful, perfect, Sookie. I think I'm going to love you.**_

_**I'll take that as a yes. See you tomorrow, partner.**_

"I'll take that as a yes," he said when he pulled back. "See you tomorrow, partner." He whooshed away then, leaving her standing in the middle of the empty street at four in the morning, dazed, confused and slightly elated.

_I finally met a man who says exactly what he thinks. No fronts, no lies, just real._ It took her several minutes to convince her body to move in a general homeward direction. She managed to suppress the giggle that wanted to come out, but lost the battle on the skip in her step as she disappeared into the night.


	2. Partners

**FauX- Partners**

"The first known case of FauX was a werewolf in Spain," Sookie said as she handed Eric the stack of files detailing everything they knew so far about the drug. "The user was a wealthy businessman name Felipe DeCastro."

"DeCastro? He's one of the richest men in the world," Eric said, taking the files and flipping through them at vampire speed. "He attacked and killed two civilians in the town if Logrono."

"Yes, SIN was able to cover it up through glamour and by taking possession of any damning conclusive evidence but the attacks were broadcast through the country before we realized that had happened."

Closing the last file he looked at her, "So, we have two werewolves in London, a vampire in South America, and shifter in Shreveport, Louisiana. That's near your stomping ground isn't it Agent Stackhouse?" her face registered surprise.

"How did you know that?"

"Your accent. Can't you tell the difference?"_ My accent,_ she thought, and then suppressed a smile. _If he heard my real accent would be able to place me so easily_? Quickly, she suppressed the thought, too risky at SIN central to be thinking of anything other than the facts that she had trained herself to believe were truths.

She had not known what to expect tonight, after the kiss when they parted she had expected him to be flirtatious and to possibly assume that this was going to be more than business, but his actions and his thoughts has been straight forward and business oriented since he had arrived at fifteen minutes past sunset.

His change in wardrobe had been just as unexpected as his all business attitude. Gone were the Stetson, boots and jacket, replaced with black t-shirt, leather jacket, black motorcycle boots and dark skin tight jeans. He seemed at ease in these clothes, indicating that he wore them often and they were his preference when not under cover.

She, too, had played for comfort this evening, knowing they had a long night ahead of them, opting for jeans and red v-neck sweater. She had kept her cowboy boots though, not an affectation for the stage but her actual preferred shoes whenever possible. Her hair was down, projecting a more lax attitude than she felt, but she knew it would come in handy when they questioned their one and only collar from the disaster of the previous night, one Lafayette Reynolds.

"No, I suppose not," she said coming back this question about accents and recognizing them. He had an air about him tonight, regal and lethal that he had not been projecting last night, and she wondered what had changed, or if this was just the true face of VBI Agent Eric Northman. Time would tell. "Yes, I grew up near there, but never spent much time in Shreveport. Do you know it?"

"I had a bar that once." Her eyebrow came up. "It was another life," he finished, offering nothing more. _I need to read his file_, she thought. "Notice anything about these users?" he asked testing her. She liked tests.

"You mean that they were all filthy rich?" He smiled his appreciation for her quick deductions.

"Exactly, that would indicate-"

"That FauX ain't cheap," she finished for him.

"Right. The Shreveport incident was the most recent and the messiest. They found the user, one Sam Merlotte, dead in an alley half transformed between a dog and man?" She winced.

"Yeah, that was not pretty."

"I saw the pictures," he said tapping the file. "There were no victims attributed to this instance of the drug?"

"No, seems like Sam just wanted to shift and run through the night and forgot to look for cars. The autopsy showed that he had been hit. Our theory is that the injuries he sustained combined with his inexperience at shifting led to his death in mid-transformation. We had a helluva time getting local enforcement and the ME's office to let this one go."

"Glamour again?"

"Never leave home without a vampire in your pocket," she joked smiling, not thinking about how the words sounded until they landed on the table between them. His gaze locked with hers and she heard him stray from business for the first time.

**_I'd like to be the vampire in your pocket, Agent Stackhouse._**

"Perhaps I will come in handy then," he said aloud. Not exactly what he had been thinking, but close enough to count for honesty given that this was not the time for sexual innuendo. She found herself liking him more and more with every peek she took into his head, so much so that she felt a little bad about violating his privacy this way, but it was too soon to just trust him and not keep her guard up, no matter what her instincts told her about him.

"Perhaps you will," she said, smiling back.

"Should we question our prisoner now?" She was about to agree when she saw Alcide come into the room and motion for her to join him.

"I need a minute?" He glanced back, taking in the large tense wolf glaring at him from across the room and turned back to her.

"Sure." He rose and walked with her toward Alcide. She saw her number one cross his arms defensively in front of his chest, indicating that he was not pleased to have Eric present for their conversation. She wasn't sure that she was either, but before she could speak Eric held out his hand to Alcide.

"I wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding last night. I did not realize that she was your partner, and I was concerned for her wellbeing when you laid hands on her." Alcide raised a brow and looked at Eric.

**_Who the fuck does this guy think he is, Sook?_**

Using the hand signals they had developed she told him to cool it and be nice.

"Hrmph! Do you always jump in where you are not wanted before you know what's going on?" he asked Eric, rising to his full height, which was only an inch or two shorter than the vampire himself.

"Frequently," Eric replied his tone still light, but Sookie noted his back stiffen at Alcide's words. The were gave Eric a once over from head to toe and then took his outstretched hand.

"Me, too. Which means that we will probably get in each other's way and on each other's nerves often."

"One would hope that we would find a rhythm, take turns, perhaps?" Eric replied, squeezing Alcide's hand just a little tighter than he needed to.

**_What the fuck? Did he just make a pass at me?_** Alcide sent to her, panic evident in his mind. She suppressed a giggle.

**_Too easy,_** she heard Eric think. She coughed then, unable to stand straight-faced at the display before her.

"Uhhh, sure, I guess, whatever," Alcide stumbled, taking his hand back from Eric and turning to Sookie. "Can we talk for a minute, Sookie, alone," he added pointedly. Eric turned to Sookie.

"I'll be over here," he nodded at the table they had been using to briefing, smiling at her, more softly than he had all night, which still had a feeling of steely hardness in it. Again, she wanted to laugh. _Oh, this is going to be too good_, she thought as she nodded and turned back to Alcide. He waited until Eric had taken his seat again and then he leaned down close to her face, speaking low, as though that would stop their conversation from being overheard by big vampire ears.

Fearful that he might make mention of her telepathy she reminded him that they were not alone and to be careful of what he said. He opened his mouth and closed it again, sighing in frustration as he searched for words that would convey his thoughts and not give too much away. Business, she signaled to him. Stick to business. He actually growled at her then, his eyes lighting up a moment as his frustration boiled over.

"What's the protocol here now?" he managed to grind out of his locked jaw.

"Eric and are now partners on the FauX investigation. You are my right hand, you are now his as well." She could have sworn she saw his hair stand on end all over his body. He was literally shaking in fury and the need to explode.

"What are my orders?" She felt bad for him, she knew that there was no love lost between were and vampire on a good day, but to now have to answer to one was really pushing at Alcide's limits. Still, he had always been a consummate professional. Something more was up here. She reached into his mind and found a snarly mass of red angry thoughts.

_She is mine! Who is this fucker to come in here flashing fang and staking his claim in her, or fuck was it me that he was claiming? I was sure that she was about to give me a shot and then here comes this motherfucker!_

She pulled back, overwhelmed. She had known he had a torch for her but this was much more than just that. He seemed to have genuine feelings for her and even if there were no vampire in the room that would be a huge problem. Looking around the room she noticed a conference room open and motioned for him to follow her. She closed the door behind them and turned to face the large angry wolf that was towering over her.

"Do we have a problem?" she asked him in her most authoritative tone.

"No!" he snapped back.

"You are the best number one any team leader could hope for and you have been an excellent partner to me the past five years. I will not let you sabotage your career over this."

"What I do with my career is my business."

"Not while you are part of my team. You are my responsibility and what you do is as much as my business as it is yours. I don't wish to seem cold, but this, you and me, it's not gonna happen, Alcide." He slumped in front of her looking at the floor like she had just ripped the spine right out of him.

"It's because of him, isn't' it?"

"No, and you must never think that it is. There are million reasons why I am not the girl for you, Alcide. You need to find yourself a nice bitch and have some pups. That is never going to be me."

"I don't care about any of that shit, Sookie and you know it! You know how I feel about you! You know this is not a passing thing for me."

"Then I have done us both a disservice. I should have transferred you long before now."

"WHAT? You would send me away because I lo-"

"STOP! You don't even know me, Alcide. You don't say those words to someone unless they can say them back!" He grabbed her shoulders then.

"Then say them back!" he was in her face then and she realized that this was bigger than she had ever let herself see. _Fool_, she chided herself. _What did you think was going to happen on all the late night stake outs and danger foreplay? You may not be able to feel anything but you're a fucking fool if you think the rest of the world is as numb and controlled as you are. You've made a real fucking mess here! You may not want him but this is a good man and good agent!_

She brought her hands up to the sides of his face and channeled her light into them. Immediately, he relaxed, calming to her touch. "Alcide," she said looking deeply into his eyes. "We are just friends. It's all we've ever been. It's all we're ever gonna be, and you are ok with that."

"Ok with that," he echoed in a dreamy tone.

"If you want to transfer to a new team, I will sign off on the paperwork, but if you stay here you will accept this and be fine with it, and I will have your back and you will have mine and we will continue to do our jobs to our utmost just like we have for the past five years."

"Just like we have for the past five years," he repeated again.

"Think it over tonight and let me know what you decide. Thank you, Alcide, for being the best partner I could have ever hoped for." She let her hands drop then, and he let her go stepping back, shaking his head.

"You did something fairy to me didn't you?" he asked her in a calmer tone.

"Yes, I calmed you, and prepared your mind to accept the truths that your rage could not hear." He nodded then.

"I will think it over." He left the room then. She lingered a moment to gather herself before joining Eric back in the main room.

32XXXXXXXXXXXXXX23

Eric stood as she approached and held out an envelope. "Surveillance photos from Crème." She opened it and flipped through them quickly while he looked down over her shoulder. She found one grainy photo of the woman that had eluded her last night. Motioning Alcide over, she told him to get copies of this photo to Amelia, their team witch, to try a locator spell.

"It's a long shot," she said turning back to Eric, "But it might be the best one we have right now." As one they moved the room where Lafayette had been held since last night. They entered and sat down across from their suspect. Since he was Eric's collar she let him lead.

"Mr. Reynolds, you are being held as a suspected V user and seller. We have some questions for you."

"A'ight," he said leaning forward. It was obvious that he was scared, but he was holding it together pretty well. He took a long hard look at Sookie and she let herself slide into his thoughts to see what she could pick up that might expedite the questioning. At least half of the interrogation process was knowing what questions to ask.

_She sho had me fooled! _

"Do you know this woman?" Eric asked, flipping the grainy photo of the were across the table. Sookie heard his thoughts suddenly tumble and trip. He thought yes, and then no and then it all went static, like a radio station with dead air. Was that from Eric, glamouring calm last night or something else?

"Naw," he hesitated. "I…I don't think I know her."

"What do you mean?" Eric pressed him, his face turning scary cold.

"Look, I'll tells ya'll whatever it is I knows to get the fuck up outta here, but I don't…I don't think I know her." Eric leaned back and sat there a moment, staring Lafayette down. The suspect started to shake, _I probably would too, if he looked at me like_, Sookie thought.

Eric suddenly moved and grabbed a pen, scribbling a note to Sookie. _Glamoured?_ She nodded in agreement, pleased that he was so quick and that she would be able to keep her secret a bit longer.

"How long have you been using and dealing V?" Lafayette's eyes widened and he raised one arm in front of himself, rubbing his hand along his other arm, unconsciously calming himself before he answered.

"Umm, 'bout six months now."

"Who is your usual source?"

"Pam," he said dropping his eyes at giving up his boss, the owner of Crème.

"Does she give you're her own blood, or the blood of others."

"Both, I think."

"How did this start?"

"We was closing up one night and she wanted to gets her party on. She told me dat it would 'enhance the experience'," he said doing more than a passible impression of Pamela Ravenscroft. "So, I called up some of my friends and we partied." He swallowed and brought his gaze back to Eric's. "We did dat a few times and den one night she told me dat she wanted me to sell V for her."

"Why?" Eric pressed him again, leaning in now, really pissed that a vampire would behave in such a manner.

"Alls I know is dat she seemed to need de money it brought in"

"How do you know that?"

"Cause she kepts giving me mo', tellin' me I gots to move it faster. Dat an she kept raisin' the price." He broke then, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Lookahere, ya'll gotta protects me from her! She be one scary bitch!" Sookie saw in his mind that Pam had threatened him on more than one occasion and that she had also bitten him for not moving the V as fast as she wanted.

_Fuck, I should have been paying more attention to what was going on,_ she berated herself. Right behind that though she realized that even if she had known she wasn't sure she would have done anything to jeopardize her investigation. Finding out who was behind FauX was more important than a ring of V dealers, but there now seemed to be a connection that she had missed.

"If you continue to cooperate we will protect you, Mr. Reynolds," Eric soothed the suspect, attempting to calm him because he was working himself up into quite a state. Given what he was remembering Sookie could hardly blame him.

"Why didn't you just leave, Mr. Reynolds?"

"Bitch made me take her blood, said she'd finds me iffin I tried to run." Eric growled. Sookie looked at him sharply. So much for calming the suspect.

**_The blood is sacred! It's bad enough to sell it but to force it on a human and make them a slave is unforgiveable_**_!_ His thoughts were filled with such rage that Sookie found herself shaking from the force of them. Lafayette looked like he was ready to crawl under the table and hide. He knew it wasn't safe out there, and now it was looking less and less safe in here. Sookie spoke for the first time since the interrogation had begun.

"How did you come to reach out to Mr. Northman, Lafayette?" She listened in and heard more static. He had been directed to Eric and then glamoured to forget!

"I-I don't know. I remember dat I was sposed to meets him at Crème, and dat he was bringin' V but the rest, fuck! I wanna helps, ya'll gotta believes me!"

"We believe you, Lafayette," she soothed him with her words and smiled at him, and he seemed to settle back down a little. Standing, Sookie motioned for Eric to follow her out of the room.

When they got outside he was still furious, his face a beautiful nightmare to behold. She laid a hand on his arm, and he stared down at it, before bringing his gaze up to hers. Together they spoke.

"We need to find Pamela Ravenscroft."

"Jinx! Buy me a coke!" Sookie said hurriedly, smiling at their synchronous thoughts and words.

"Buy you a coke?" Eric asked, now much less tense himself.

"When two people say the same thing at the same time the first one to call 'Jinx" gets to tell the other one what they want."

"And you want a Coke?" he asked, his eyes alight with teasing and something else.

**_I'd give you anything you wanted._**

She gulped at hearing his hot intimate thoughts, feeling a little like she has wasted an opportunity to ask for something much, much better than Coke.

"Yes," she said, "I want a Coke."

"Then a Coke you shall have, as soon as we find Pamela Ravenscroft."

"Right," Sookie agreed, shifting her thoughts back to the business at hand. "Did you take her into custody last night?"

"No, I questioned her after taking custody of Mr. Reynolds. She swore that she knew nothing about him selling V and that would cooperate in any way she could. She was anxious to know when she could reopen Crème, and I gave her leave to do that tonight."

"Still, it is doubtful that we will find her there. She had to suspect that Lafayette would crack, and she no doubt has been tracking his emotion in their blood tie."

"You understand how blood ties work, Agent Stackhouse?"

"Of course, basic SIN training."

"Of course," he repeated, as if really seeing the SIN agent in from of him for the first time, rather than the mostly naked Sookie that he had found on the stage of Crème the night before.

32XXXXXXXXXXXX23

Before leaving she asked Alcide to contact Amelia about a locator spell on Pamela Ravenscroft as well, just in case. When they stepped outside Eric stepped up behind her, his arms coming around her, pulling her close.

"Umm, what are you-?"

"With your permission, I will fly us to Crème?" He can fly? Holy S! Not even thinking about it she pressed back into him and rested her hands on his arms around her waist.

"Go for it!" He chuckled at her exuberance and then blasted into the sky. She laughed in his arms and held on tightly as they flew above Dallas. "This is freaking awesome!" she called back to him, and to show off he sped up a little. She let herself listen to him as they flew.

**_So good, she feels amazing in my arms. I love her laugh. I would love to show her the world like this and listen to her laugh over Paris, Madrid, London. We could perch atop Big Ben and swap the secrets of our hearts_**.

She melted into his large frame, warmed by his thoughts, lost in the images he was thinking. When the landed at Crème she was disappointed, rather than exhilarated as she usually was when hunting a suspect. She stepped slowly from his arms and turned to face him.

"Thank you, Eric," she said softly.

"'Twas just a little flying, Sookie," he answered just as quietly.

"It was more than that, Cowboy."

"You're never going to let me live down that Stetson, are you?" His hand came up to her cheek then and she turned into to, closing her eyes, feeling him touch her as she recalled his thoughts during their flight.

**_Not the time Northman!_** She heard him think, and that broke the spell. They had a mission here and she needed to get her shit together and focus, goddamnit! Sighing, she stepped back at the same time he dropped his hand.

"We need to get going-" they said at the same time again. This time it was Eric who called it.

"Jinx, I want to pick this up later." Yep, and she asked for a Coke. _Yer such a dumbass, Stackhouse,_ she told herself.

"Then we shall pick this up later, after we find Pamela Ravenscroft," she said, echoing him from earlier.

32XXXXXXXXXXXX23

Crème was open and business was in full swing but Pamela had not been in tonight and was not expected. Sookie read the bartender's mind and found that she had called and said she was taking a few days off, and he was in charge. Sookie had never liked Chow very much. It wasn't that he was a vampire, she didn't mind those so much and less and less with every passing moment. It was that he was a dick.

"You're late, Sookie. Get your ass backstage and get up there. The crowd has been asking for you." He glanced at Eric beside her and his lip turned up in derision. "You know that you aren't supposed to bring the ones you fuck to work with you. Puts off the customers. Get rid of him, now!"

Apparently, Pam had left out some details about what had gone down at Crème last night if this asshole thought she was still working here and didn't know that Eric was VBI. She was about to open her mouth when she heard something click in Chow's mind.

**_Oh, fuck! That's the Northman that Pam told Lafayette to get in here! I thought that shit went down last night! Goddamn it, Lafayette didn't show tonight and Pam is not here! She wanted him for the witch! What the fuck do I do now? _** He was reaching for a silver chain beneath the bar when Sookie pulled her gun full of silver bullets and shoved it into Chow's face.

"SIN, stop right there, asshole. You're to be detained for questioning!" Chow, not taking her seriously kept reaching for the chain to try and capture Eric. Sookie's head was reeling as the pieces came together.

Pam and the were had lured Eric here, knowing who he was because they planned to take him last night! It was only the fact that Sookie had been made and Eric's bust had gone awry that had saved him from possibly being abducted!

_Fuck_, her brain screamed, _how did I not consider her arriving AFTER him could mean that she was tailing him? FUCK! _

At that moment Chow came up with the chain and Sookie shot him in the face, dropping him behind the bar like a sack of potatoes. For the second night in a row the patrons stampeded for the door, running from the gunfire and the crazy display of giant vampire that followed right after when Eric vamped over the bar and grabbed Chow by the neck.

When the bar emptied of patrons and all employees except for Chow, they drug him out to the middle of the floor and used his chain to secure him to a chair. He was healing slowly from the wound in his head, and not a happy camper to find additional silver restraining him.

Furious at herself and at the vampire who had tried to hurt her partner she turned to Chow with a rage that Eric found impressive and titillating. _Is that what I look like when I lose my shit?_

"You're going to tell me what you know about FauX, Chow, or you die here, tonight!" Not fully recovered enough to have his wits about him he immediately started to spill what little he knew.

"Pam handles all that, we are partners in the bar only, and she deals with the witch."

"WHAT'S HER FUCKING NAME?" Sookie screamed into his face, taking her finger and pushing the silver bullet back that had been working itself out back into the wound on his skull. Chows screams rattled the windows.

"HALLOW! THEY CALL HER HALLOW!" he was writhing in the chair now, trying to get away from Sookie and her finger of doom that was hell bent on making that silver a permanent fixture in his brain matter.

"WHAT DOES THE WITCH HAVE TO DO WITH FAUX?"

"SHE MAKES IT! SHE MAKES THE STUFF, FUCK!" He screamed again, but this only made Sookie angrier.

"WHY DID THEY WANT ERIC? TELL ME NOW OR YOU'RE NOT WALKING OUT OF HERE!"

"I DON'T KNOW, I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW! THEY JUST NEEDED HIM! SET HIM UP TO COME HERE. THEY WERE GONNA TAKE HIM BUT FUCKING PAM AND LAFAYETTE DIDN'T SHOW UP TONIGHT! I JUST KNOW THEY WANTED HIM! PLEASE, PLEASE STOP!"

"WHERE IS PAMELA NOW?"

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! I SWEAR! I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!"

Sookie was totally out of control now, lost in her rage at herself for missing all this for the month that she had been here, for not making the connections before, for what had almost happened to her partner last night and tonight. She expected more from herself than this, her failure was unacceptable. She was just coming in to kill Chow when Eric's arms closed around her from behind.

"Sookie," he said softly into her ear. She pulled against him, fighting to get free to finish venting on the now helpless Chow before her. "Sookie!" He said again, shaking her as he had seen Alcide do the night before, wondering briefly what the source of the real rage was about. She seemed a seething volcano that once unleashed would go completely out of control.

He felt her calm in his arms and heard her take a few shuddering breaths. "Let. Me. Go!"

"When you calm down, I will release you, Sookie."

"I am fucking calm, Eric." He chuckled but loosened his grip. She turned to him, fire still in her eyes and her face as hard as stone. "Thank you," was all she said before she turned and walked out the front door of Crème. Eric waited a moment, making sure that Chow was still secure before joining her. She was on the phone.

"Right, we have one for pick up at Crème. I want this fucking place shut down, permanently. No more V, no more FauX. Burn it to the ground and salt the earth. This fucking place is done." She listened a moment more and then hung up turning to Eric.

"Alcide is on his way and we have a hit on both our locator spells."

"Shreveport?" he guessed. She nodded tightly.

"As soon as Alcide arrives we headed there."

"Agreed and that leaves us just enough time."

"Just enough time to for what?" she snapped at him.

"For you to explain how you knew he planned to use that silver on me, and that the witch had come here for me last night."


	3. Those We Trust

**_Last time on FauX…_**

_ "__Alcide is on his way and we have a hit on both our locator spells."_

_"__Shreveport?" Eric guessed. She nodded tightly._

_"__As soon as Alcide arrives we headed there."_

_"__Agreed and that leaves us just enough time."_

_"__Just enough time to for what?" she snapped at him._

_"__For you to explain how you knew he planned to use that silver on me, and that the witch had come here for me last night."_

32XXXXXXXXXXX23

**FauX-Those We Trust**

"You never told me how you came to be at Crème, Eric. Did Lafayette call you directly? What was your side of that story?"

"I am the VBI undercover operative for Dallas Drug Operations."

"And what does that mean exactly?"

"I investigate and infiltrate drug rings in and around the Dallas area to identify movers and users. I report directly to Godric, the head of the VBI."

"So, again, did Lafayette call you directly on your 1-800 Need Some V line?"

"No, I received word through an informant."

"And the informant's name?"

"William Compton."

"And he would be?"

"Low level player. I pay him to keep me in the know."

"And does he know that you are VBI?"

"To my knowledge, no."

"So, what does Compton know, that would interest the creator and peddler of FauX in you, Agent Northman?"

"Vampires can sense things about each other, you know this, right?" She nodded. "Well, I suppose the most interesting thing about me is my age, and vampires can sense when they are in the presence of one older than themselves."

"And how old are you, Agent Northman?"

"Around two thousand years old."

"When vampire's age, their blood becomes more potent, right?"

"Yes, and they become stronger and faster as well."

"What else?"

"We rest little, we heal faster, are more resistant to sunlight, though we still burn if directly exposed. Silver has less impact, but again it still burns if directly exposed. We require very little blood to survive and find that we control our instincts more than they control us." Something in that explanation touched a chord with Sookie. There was a reason they wanted Eric Northman specifically.

"And all of this would have been something that Compton could have sensed on his own? Do you think he gave you up to them, or that he was truly just the go between?" Eric thought a moment and then shrugged.

"Could go either way. On a good day he's a weasel, on a bad day, a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur."

"And you use _him_ for an informant?"

"Well for some reason the good guys are never around when the bad shit goes down. It's a mystery." His sarcasm was not lost on Sookie and so she took this chance, possibly her last chance, to listen to his thoughts.

**_Compton could have betrayed me, sure I wouldn't be surprised, but that doesn't explain why they picked me, what makes me different?_**

**_Why is she so angry? She's completely come unglued twice now, and I have a feeling that the reason is pretty big and pretty buried. _**

**_I wish she trusted me enough to share it with me. _**

**_I wish she trusted me enough to let me help her._**

"There aren't a lot of two thousand year old vampires are there, Eric?"

"No, not many at all."

"I'm a telepath."

"In fact there are only a few who-," he stopped, looking at her a small smile on his lips. She was listening to what he thought, and was not expecting him to say anything nearly interesting as what he might be thinking.

**_I know._**

"I know."

**_I wanted you to tell me. I wanted you to trust me._**

"I wanted you to tell me, I wanted you to trust me."

"Why didn't you tell me you knew?" she asked him, sounding angry again.

"I know a lot has happened but we have barely known each other for twenty-four hours. So, I don't think it's unreasonable that we don't know everything about each other, yet."

_He's so fucking reasonable and calm_, she thought, though what he said made sense. It was his ability to be so centered and calm that really worked her last fucking nerve. She opened her mouth to clobber him again, and then shut it.

It was a fucked up situation and he had just as much, if not more, right to be angry as she did, but he was smiling at her. That same sweet smile he had given her when he was standing in front of her on the stage at Crème.

_Was that why his thoughts were perfect? Because he knew I was listening? Was he playing me? Did he think I was playing him?_

_Fuck, I wish I had just told him first thing last night before the drive by kissing. Or tonight before the briefing, or the questioning, or the flying or the fighting…he was right. A lot of shit had gone down in the time brief time since we had met._

**_Trust is such a funny thing, isn't it, Sookie? We fight to keep ourselves, separate, to keep ourselves safe and act as though placing trust in each other is a choice that we actually get to make. _**

**_I had not _**given**_ you my trust when you saved me from Chow's silver, but you did it anyway. _**

**_I never doubted for a second that I could trust you._**

**_I hope you know you can count on me, that you can trust me as well._**

His thoughts washed over her, calming her as well now and she knew that she had a decision to make. Forget the philosophy about whether it was something she could really _choose_ to do or not, once the decision was made she knew she would play it out to the end, be it bitter or sweet.

Looking at him now, considering everything that he had inspired her to feel in the short amount of time they had known each other, there really wasn't much of a choice for her to actively make. Perhaps he was right after all.

The choice had been made the moment she looked into his blue eyes and his beautiful mind.

"I want you," she told him softly, taking a step closer, knowing that he had absolutely no way to know that she had _never_ said that to anyone before because she had never felt that before. She said _that_ first, rather than explain because knowing all that history should not impact his choice in this. He either wanted her, too, or he didn't. "From the moment I saw you, from the moment I heard you, from the moment you walked into my life, I just… wanted you. Is that all right?"

"Better than all right," he said, taking a step closer to her as well, focused completely on her.

"I understand what you mean about trust, and the illusion that it is ours to give, and I don't disagree. I would add that for me, when I want to trust someone I am already emotionally engaged with them, which makes it impossible for me to be rational about the decision. And when I am rational, I don't find myself able to trust.

"This means that if I trust someone I just close my eyes, and say 'Geronimo' as I dive in." She took a step closer to him now, and reached a hand out to him. "Geronimo."

Before either of them could move the sound of an approaching vehicle pulled their attention from each other.

"Alcide," Sookie confirmed taking a step back further from Eric.

"He wants you, too, doesn't he?"

"Yes."

"And you?"

"I don't feel that way about him."

"Because of me?"

"No, I've never felt that way about him. I care for him and I respect him, but we will never be more than friends." She smirked at him. "Has your ego always been so large?"

"Used to be worse, in my younger days."

"How is that even possible?"

"I believe, Agent Stackhouse, that you will find all is possible when it comes to you and me."

32XXXXXXXXXX23

No words were spoken between them while they waited for Alcide to collect Chow and head back to headquarters. Sookie told Alcide they would be checking on a source in town before they left, but should be departing in the next hour.

"You'll be at the safe house in Shreveport?" he asked her, cutting a sharp glance at Eric before turning his back on him, effectively shutting him out of the conversation. Sookie confirmed that and then asked him if he had made up his mind. "I'm staying."

"I'm glad." They watched him drive away, and once he turned the corner they turned back to each other.

"So, sounds like you decided we need to pay a visit to Compton before heading to Shreveport?"

"Yes, I want to read him."

"So, we'll be undercover?"

"Yes, until we can confirm that he knows you are VBI, it's best to maintain your cover." She tilted her head then, a questioning looking in her eyes. "What is your cover?"

"You saw my outfit the other night?"

"Definitely." He smirked and looked away from the humor in her eyes.

"Well, Compton thinks I am a cowboy obsessed rich playboy vamp with a taste for the dark side. That I am bored, and looking for things that take me to the edge."

"Things?"

"Yes, drugs, cars, games of chance, women."

"Women?"

"The right woman is all those things, so naturally, I would be obsessed with those as well."

"And are you really obsessed with women, Agent Northman?"

"You have a tell, you know?" She blinked.

"Huh?"

"That's what gave you away to me, to you have a tell when you read people." This was news to her.

"Are you obsessed with women, Agent Northman?" she pressed again, sliding into his mind to seek her answer, explaining her action as habit rather than need and refusing the see the addict that was huddling inside her.

**_Woman, not women. I am obsessed with a woman._**

"Just before you read someone you get this look on your face. It's as though you know you are about to be told something that you are not going to like and you are bracing yourself for it."

"Most people think some pretty terrible things, Eric."

**_I want to kiss you._**

"I am not most people, Sookie."

"That's for damned sure," she said as she ghosted toward him, summoned by his thoughts and the images they brought to mind. _I want to kiss you, too_, she thought wishing that he could hear her, and then she was glad he could not. They would have reminded him that they had Compton's to question, witches and bitches to track down and that now was not the time to indulge in questionable partner practices.

This time, she was not going to be distracted.

She slid her arms up and around his neck, rising on her toes, and pulling gently to get his lips closer to hers. His hands come to her sides, palms resting on her, but when her lips touched his they moved around her, one remaining on her mid-back while the other came up to tangle itself in her hair, holding her lips to his, as he thought she would pull back.

He was unexpected sensory overload.

Rushing at her were a thousand snippets of images, moments from his long life, moments of blood and pain, moments of passion and love blew past her minds eyes in a long stream that was so fast she could barely process any of it. As the string of images faded away, she found herself, alone standing in his mind.

**_I want you, too, Sookie. I wanted you from the moment I saw you, too, from the moment you walked into my life. Is that all right?_**

Her answer was to kiss him harder and tangle her fingers in the hair at the base of his neck. The image in his mind shifted and he was there with her, and they were missing their clothes, and there was a bed, and there was time to do all the things they wanted to do.

**_Oh, beautiful, Sookie. We have to go!_**

The sound of his anguish, the sheer weight of his not wanting to go was crushing. It was also amazing and freeing. She pulled back from his kisses, and looked up at him, forcing herself to focus.

"You promise me that we will pick this up later. Swear it, or I'm not sure I'm going to be able to let you go right now."

"I swear, Sookie. I swear!" he said passionately, his face open and impossibly innocent for one who had seen and done all the things that she had glimpsed in his mind. She wanted to say so much, explain, and tell him all the things that she had never told anyone. It was without the dumbest thing that she could possibly do, and it was the only thing she wanted to do.

She wouldn't even need to perch on Big Ben to do it.

He stepped back from her now, his fists clenched and his face clearly displaying his internal torment before she saw his mask slide back into place. Following his lead, she reached deep inside and pulled the blanket that was Sookie Stackhouse tightly around her, and imagined her face was made of cold hard stone, just like his.

"Travel's on me this time," she said, all business once again.

"You fly?"

"Teleport." His mask cracked and pure delight covered his face.

"Really? That's amazing, Agent Stackhouse." She smiled back.

"You ain't seen nothing yet. Picture the place in your mind that you want to go to, see it clearly." She took his hand then, touch was enough, but she indulged in threading her fingers through his, squeezing gently. "Got it! Hang on."

This was Eric's first teleportation. His eyes were wide open and filled with wonder to see the process. It was not unlike being suspended above the ground while it spun by you at the perceptible thousand miles per hour that it actually traveled at.

A blink and he was outside Crème.

A blink and he was outside Compton's house in a Dallas suburb.

"How far can you teleport?"

"No limit as far as I know. As long I can see where I am going I can get there." He opened his mouth to speak again, and then closed it.

**_Later_**, she heard him think, just before his lips crushed hers again, and he commenced rubbing himself all over her. A few moments later he released her lips and looked down into her eyes, his dilated wide and his fangs fully extended. "You are mine!" he told her.

_Yes, yes I am yours. Wait-_

"If Compton touches you, I can kill him now."

"Do you want to kill him?" He shrugged, indicating he didn't care either way.

"I will if he touches you." As she knew that she was supposed resent being on display at Crème, she knew that she was supposed to resent being claimed by an alpha male figure who wanted to make her his.

She did not resent it. NOT. AT. ALL. Her rise in SIN to command her own field team indicated her own alpha personality and status, which should put her at odds with the men in her world, but it didn't. It didn't because if they were not able to bring her to submission she ignored them, and so far they had all been ignored.

But this one, this one was new. He was all alpha male, and she responded not with submission but with alpha female. Psychologically, it fascinated her. Physically, it laid waste to her brand new need for self-control. Emotionally, it was like riding a tornado. In the space of ten seconds she could roll through wanting to kill him, fuck him senseless and then knitting him something. This was all new unexplored territory for her. She would have been having the best time ever if so many lives were not hanging in the balance and counting on them.

"You wanna go on vacation with me when this is over?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Good."

"Anyplace in particular?"

"The only thing new in this is world is you, Sookie."

"So, someplace with a bed then?" He chuckled and started toward the house. She scanned it looking for thoughts.

"He's not here. What now?"

"On to Shreveport. Would you like to lay odds that we find him there?"

"No. I like to win."

"Another thing we share, Agent Stackhouse."

32XXXXXXXXXX23

The address the locator spell led them to was only a few blocks away from Eric's bar used to be. She took them there, and then he flew them to the warehouse. It was empty by the time they arrived, but he was able to sense that Compton had been there and Pamela Ravenscroft as well.

There was blood on the floor that she gathered a sample of and teleported back to SIN headquarters, texting Alcide to grab it off her desk and get to analysis as quickly as possible

"Smells odd," he said kneeling in front of it and taking a deep breath. "There is faint trace of werewolf, but it's mostly human." She knelt beside him.

"You think they made a werewolf and turned it lose in Shreveport?"

"Possibly." He took another deep breath and moved with vampire speed to the far corner of the warehouse, jerking back a tarp that covered the desiccated corpse of a wolf.

"What is it?" she asked him as he eyed it with a cold expression.

"Werewolf," he said sounding cold and grim.

"What? I thought when a supe died they changed back to human form?"

"They do."

"Then why is this one still in wolf form?"

"I think it was magic that held his shape while his fluids were drained from him. Can we get it to your witch?" She nodded and called Alcide to prep him for incoming before teleporting the corpse as she had the sample earlier. Standing, Eric took another deep breath and told her that he thought he might be able to track Compton and Ravenscroft.

Moments later they were flying through the night, following something that only Eric could sense. Too soon, he stopped over a car park, cursing softly under his breath. "They took a car from here. There is no longer a trail to follow." They landed long enough for Sookie to check in with Alcide and find out that there was nothing yet from the sample or the corpse. She told him they were headed to the safe house before terminating the call. She teleported them and immediately began to pace the room like a caged animal.

"We missed them," Sookie said, throwing her phone on the safe house sofa. He did not reply, or comment on her frustration. Instead he followed her pacing with this cool, calm blue gaze. Finally, as it seemed to do, his calm piqued her passionate irritation. "How can you always be so fucking calm?" she erupted, stopping to stare him down.

"Experience," came his calm reply.

"Experience?" she repeated, sarcastically. "FauX is new as far as I know, so where does this experience come from?"

"FauX is new, yes. This situation of chase and elude is not. All we need to do is be patient and diligent in our pursuit and we will find and stop them."

"Pffft! That simple, huh?"

"Yes." She opened her mouth to make some smart comment and then she closed it again. He was two thousand years old. Perhaps he knew what he was talking about. The wind left her sails now, and she found herself calmed, as she realized she often was in his presence. The realization hit her then like a welcomed freight train, taking her breath. "Oh!" she said softly, her eyes growing wide.

"What is it, Sookie?" his voice was deep and gravelly and it made her take another quick breath.

"A thought just occurred to me." She started moving toward him, grabbing the bottom of her sweater and starting to pull slowly up over her head.

"A thought?" his voice growing deeper still as he watched her. She dropped the sweater on the floor.

"It's later now." She reached behind her back and unclasped the peach colored lace bra she was wearing. He could see the clear outline of her nipples beneath the thin fabric. A moment later the fabric was gone.

"Indeed it is," her hands moved to hear jeans and slowly started to push them down, pausing to remove her cowboy boots and then taking the pants off the rest of the way. She stood then and let him just stare at her.

He was riveted. Her actions, her words, her body, her style just captivated him. She had from the moment he had seen her. Since then all he had done was remind himself that this wasn't time or this wasn't the place.

He was old and not ruled by his desires, instincts and impulses, that was true, but little Sookie Stackhouse took him right out past the edge of his tolerances and then thumbed her nose at him.

**_I wish I knew the words…_**

"You could just show me, cowboy." He growled then, and vamped to her, standing so close he was almost touching her, but not quite. "I want you to show me, Eric. I need you to show me," she added sliding her arms around his neck like she had done earlier in front of Crème. For a moment she focused on his lips, licking her own in anticipation.

"You need…?" he repeated, tone distant and dreamy, now focusing on her lips, too, until her saw her eyes flick up to meet his when he spoke.

"I've never done this before," she whispered, unconsciously showing her telepathy tell as she waited to see what he thought about those apples.

**_Geronimo._**


	4. Those We Trust- Part II

**_Last time on FauX…_**

_"__I've never done this before," she whispered, unconsciously showing her telepathy tell as she waited to see what he thought about those apples._

**_Geronimo._**

_*Lemons ahead. If you don't like those feel free to skip to the next break.*_

_32XXXXXXXXXX23_

FauX- Those We Trust Part 2

"Geronimo," she echoed out loud as she met his lips, her eyes drifting closed, giving herself over to him completely. She had told him that she would do that, but when he saw it happen it pushed his boundaries again, testing his control. So many thoughts, so much feeling, starting with her lithe beautiful naked body pressed to his.

As he had done when she offered herself to him outside Crème, his arms banded around her, his open palm now feeling her silky warm skin. His hands were so large that they covered a large span of her back and she pressed closer to him, loving the feel of him covering her. His other hand again tangled itself in her hair. She was elated and disappointed. He needed more hands to touch her in all the places that she needed him.

As if _he _could read _her_ mind, he moved his hands around, one coming to rest on her hips, pressing her tighter against him and the evidence of his own need. She rubbed against him, moaning in the kiss, not thinking now, not listening now, and only feeling now.

"Touch me, Eric. Don't ever stop touching me," she managed to get out between kisses. She heard his fangs come down then, and it made her want him more. Somewhere in her memories she knew that she had been warned about vampires and what could happen if they lost control. She trusted him, foolishly, completely.

Her hands came to his shoulders and pushed off his leather jacket. Then they moved up his back under his shirt, her fingernails gently scraping his skin as her arms pulled him closer to her, dreading the moment when she would have to let him go and remove that shirt that kept his cool skin from her own body that was on fire.

Putting off the inevitable her hands slid down to his ass where she indulged in the fantasy she had been suppressing since she saw him for the first time. She squeezed pulling him closer and was rewarded by a growl and a thrust of his hips against her. Her body responded, an ache in her middle intensifying as she wanted to hear that sound from him again and know that had caused it.

"Where's the bed in this place?" he asked her, moving to her neck, which made her shiver. Would he bite her? Did she want him bite her? Her hand came up to the back of his head, pressing his face into her neck as she turned her head, offering herself to him, answering the unasked question that had pierced the haze of desire in her brain.

Yes, she wanted him to bite her. She had said she wanted him, but those words were so small compared to the feeling that barreled through her when she let it go.

"Down the hall, second door on the right." His arms came around her, taking her feet off the floor. Taking advantage of his move, she wrapped her legs around his hips and locked her ankles behind his back, rocking against him in just the right spot now, causing delicious tremors of pleasure to tingle through her. She rocked harder, feeling him move against her in return drawing out the sensation. "You feel amazing," she whispered pulling his face up to hers and kissing him again.

She felt them move at vamp speed, but didn't break their kiss, not even when she felt the softness of the bed touch her back as he bent over to lay her down. Refusing to release him when he pulled back to undress she rose with him, needing to keep her hands on him.

She placed a hand on his thigh and looked up at him as he removed his black tank top at vamp speed. It was there and then it was gone. "Is this room light tight?" his voice was deep and commanding. If it hadn't already been she would have sealed it magically to keep this going. Luckily, it was prepared for vampire guests. There were several who worked for SIN and all safe houses were equipped to meet the needs of any supernaturals who might seek refuge there.

"Switch, next to the light." He vamped over and hit them both, lighting up the room and triggering the shudders to come down over the windows. He turned to look at her then, for just a moment. His mouth fell open when he saw her there waiting for him, her lips swollen from their kisses, her nipples hard and calling to him. He wanted to move back to her and he wanted to just look at her like this forever. She solved the dilemma by holding her hand out to him.

"Please," it was all she needed to say to put him in motion. In a blink he was back in front of her, kneeling on the floor at her feet. She swallowed and stared at this beautiful man before her. Her hands would not stay away, touching his cheek, which he turned into and closed his eyes, clearly loving for her to touch him as much as she loved doing it.

"I'm new at this, but I think those jeans need to come off, Cowboy." He smiled at her words, his eyes still closed, turning his face in her hand to kiss her palm.

"I need them to slow me down." She gulped. "They remind me to savor this moment, to savor you, Sookie." She shivered when his eyes slowly came open and met hers.

"But I just want to touch you, Eric. Everywhere." He shivered then and she took a long breath, feeling her lungs expand and making her wonder if she had forgotten to breathe since he had removed his shirt.

"You will," he said, coming up to kiss her again, slowly, sweetly, softly.

"Now," she whined.

"Soon," he told her sounding calm as he always did. She couldn't help it, she had to know what he was thinking.

**_Go slow, Northman. Make her feel good. This her first time, she deserves all the pleasure you can give her. Gotta stay calm, gotta go slow._**

It was on a running loop in his brain.

"You don't have to worry about impressing me, Eric. You impressed me the first time I laid eyes on you."

**_It's not about impressing you._**

"It's not about impressing you." She swallowed, the tension and need in his voice killing her just a little more inside.

"Then why hold back, you know I want you."

**_It's because you want me. That is why I want to make this special._**

"It's because you want me. That is why I want to make this special."

"The fact that I want you makes it special, Eric." His eyes closed again at her words and he hesitated again.

"I understand, Sookie, but you said you needed me to show you. Will you trust me give you what you want?" His hands were rubbing the outside of her thighs now, and somehow instead of cooling her flushed skin with his touch he was igniting a fire there like he had in the middle of her.

"Yes," she nodded as she spoke. He leaned into her body, taking a nipple into his mouth as his hand moved between her legs. When he found the spot he was looking for her head fell back, her eyes closed as he touched her.

He released her breast and kissed a trail down her belly, he placed a hand on her stomach indicating that she should lay back. When he reached her center with his kiss, he replaced his hand with his mouth, and she thought she was going to come apart. She wanted to get away from this new sensation, and she wanted to get closer to it.

Her sound of anguish brought his eyes to her and he reached a hand up to her, threading his fingers through hers as he continued to pleasure her with his tongue. His other hand went lower and when he slid a long finger into her slick channel she screamed his name and fell back on the bed, squeezing his hand tight in hers as she tried to make her body bend to his will.

**_Give yourself to me, Sookie, trust me._**

His calming thoughts put her at ease again. As it swept through her, she felt more certain than ever that trusting him was not only inevitable but right.

"Geronimo," she whispered, just as he found some spot with his long beautiful fingers that he had never known existed. The sounds she made when she gave herself over to him completely assured him that he had found the treasure he had been seeking, and when he added a second finger she arched off the bed, pressing herself against his hand and his mouth. He used his tongue to extend her pleasure, refusing to let her back off the precipice of her pleasure.

**_Look at me, Sookie_**

Just as her eyes came open and locked with his he swirled his tongue and increased the pressure of his lips, sucking in time with his fingers that were massaging that magic place inside her. She tried to keep eyes open, she tried so hard, but when the pleasure swept through her, her body refused to comply. Her eyes slammed shut, and her mouth popped open to release the sounds he was forcing from her body. Wave after wave of furious pleasure took her breath and her mind as she exploded under this expert touch.

Before she caught her breath he covered her body with his and stole her lips in a kiss, his hands on her shoulders as he pressed his chest to hers.

**_You're so beautiful._**

Again, it was the first thing she heard him think, and as it had when she had first seen him it did things to her that no suggestive or sexually laden language could. She broke the kiss.

"You're the beautiful one, Eric. Your mind is amazing. I have never met anyone like you, who sees things the way you do. Who sees me the way you do." He looked deeply into her eyes and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He kissed her forehead softly and then moved down her face with soft baby kisses. She could feel his fangs behind his lips as he kissed her face and her mind tore in half as it tried to wrap itself around the vampire and the man before her.

How could such a creature be so gentle?

Her hand came up with a mind of its own and touched his lips, urging them to part for her. When he complied she looked at this very large fully extended fangs and traced one with her finger. His eyes fluttered shut and his hips pressed into her body, seeking relief from the pleasure her touch was bringing him.

"I want those, too, Eric," she told him in a dreamy voice.

"Have you ever…" he trailed off, not able to finish.

"No, never done that either." His eyes fluttered shut again, and a groan came out of him that caused the wetness between her legs to increase. She whimpered in response, her hand moving down to touch herself. Before she got there she encountered him, and was distracted by the hardness pressed against his jeans. She ran her hand over him lightly, and he pressed himself against her tentative touch. His evident pleasure made her bolder, and she traced the length of him with her fingers. He was very large, and her legs rubbed together in response to her mental images of him sharing himself with her, sliding into her eager body.

He was lost in her touch, pressing rhythmically into her hand mouth open, fangs out, making her even bolder still. She popped the button on his jeans open and slid her hand inside to hold him in her hand. His hips moving showed her how to move her hand and soon she was as lost as he was in the sensation of power and pleasure she felt at touching him like this.

She ran her thumb over the tip of him, feeling the wetness there that matched her own body drove a pang though her middle. She moaned and it was the sound of that need that broke Eric's trance. He brought his hand down to cover hers, covering it slowly, gently, asking her to stop without speaking or thinking it.

As he stilled her hand, he kissed her, wanting to reassure her that she done nothing wrong, that everything had in fact been just too right to let her go on.

**_I was right. I am going to love you, little Sookie._**

Her answer was to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him deeper into the kiss they were sharing. She left his lips long enough to express herself in the only word that was echoing over and over in her own mind.

"Please." There was a rush of air as he moved, but it was so fast that it seemed has though his pants and boots magically disappeared. Feeling his skin against hers from head to toe made her own eyes flutter shut for a moment as she enjoyed the sensation. She brought her hand up and pushed gently at his chest. He let her roll him to the side. "I want to see you," she said, starting at his feet. They were large like his hands, like his frame, but graceful, and perfect like the rest of him. His calves and thighs were perfectly toned with the just the right amount of hair on them. They were graceful, and all man and she loved the way they looked.

Her gaze came up to the part of him that she had just been touching moments before. She licked her lips, wondering what he would taste and feel like if she did to him what he had just done to her. As though that part of him of could read her mind it twitched and began to drip faster at the tip. She felt her mouth water in anticipation and was leaning in to satisfy her need and curiosity when she found herself covered in vampire, and vampire kisses.

**_I am so sorry, Sookie_**, he thought to her as he took her mouth, his tongue mimicking what she had just been thinking of doing to his body. **_I can't, I can't let you do that right now. I couldn't take it and finish this the way I want to finish it. Please, understand?_**

Her arms came up across his back and she kissed him back, reassuring him that she did understand. To comfort him further she opened her legs, encouraging him to rest his long body there that she might hold him that way, too.

This new position though was not soothing as she intended, rather it stoked the fire that seemed to be burning in this beautiful man, causing him to shake in her arms. He was like thoroughbred just before the gates opened. He needed to move. He pushed against the wet heat at the center of her, the tip of him grazing her entrance and then she was ready to run, too.

She opened wider to him and watched as he lined himself up with her entrance. As he started to sink into her, so slowly she thought she was going to die before she could feel him the way she needed to, his eyes locked with hers.

"If you need me to stop, tell me." His eyes were deep blue stormy pools that seemed to move like ocean waves as he rocked into her with his body. A little, and then out, a little more, and then out again, stretching her so slowly that she wanted to scream and pull him down into her all the way. Just then he went in a little further than before, and she felt her body give way to him. She was right on the edge that he had taken her to before and he was still slowly working his way into her.

He watched her face for any sign of pain, any micro-expression tell that would let him know she was not enjoying this as much as he was. It would be the True Death to leave her now, but if he saw anything on her face he would stop immediately.

Despite the fact that it couldn't happen, his arms were shaking, as he concentrated on going slow, rocking in and out of her, wanting her to enjoy this as much as she could. His balls were throbbing with the need to let go, but he pushed it back. His fangs were out so far his gums were throbbing in time with the rest of him. When she said she had never had sex before it was hell. When she told him she wanted his bite and had never done that before either, he learned that hell had many levels.

He was slowly working his way into a new one right now, half of him still outside the heat of her body, every instinct he had begging him to just bury himself inside her and let go.

Her eyes locked with his held him back. Every time his body flexed another color appeared there. Another expression of her exquisite pleasure at this entrance floated over her beautiful face. He clung to that, wanting to see how many colors there were, and how many expressions he could evoke from her that told her he was doing exactly what she wanted, exactly what she needed.

That was what held him together. Even when he worked another inch into her and her head fell back on the bed unable to watch any more as pleasure over took her completely. Her hands came up as her head rolled back and forth, clutching his ass, feeling his body tighten and release as he fought to gain ground in this war to conquer her body in the most pleasurable way possible.

Jaws locked he glanced down and saw that one more tiny push would bury him inside her completely and he felt another shiver run down his back. The image of that pressed on him again to hurry. Just as he pulled back for the last time to rock into her body again and fully seat himself there she pulled his mouth back to hers and lifted her legs to put her feet in the small of his back.

This time when he sank in he went deeper than he had thought possible. He froze then, fighting for his own self-control and to give her time to adjust to his invasion. She kissed him without moving her hips, running her hands through his hair, massaging his scalp with hands, and his fangs with her tongue.

He came down off his arms, letting his own hands tangle in her hair as he kissed her back, fighting to release the tension in his body through the kiss they shared. Finally, it was too much, and he pulled back burying his face in her neck, hiding his shame at being able to control himself better than this.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice deep and gravelly with repressed need right into her ear. Her body responded instinctively to the sound of his need and clenched around the part of him that was buried inside her. His moan rushed into her ear next as he started to beg her to not do that, to not move. "I don't want to hurt you, please, I just need a minute." Against his will his hips rocked into the heat of her as he spoke and her sounds pushed him further away from being able to hold it together.

"It feels like if you move, just a little, I'm going to explode into a thousand pieces," she panted into his ear. "Do it. Make me explode, baby." There was no way he could stop now. His eyes rolled back into his head as he pulled back and sank into her again. Her legs tightened around him and she let out a breathless cry of pleasure, as he did it again and again.

In no time she came apart around him, exploding just like she had threatened to do, becoming impossibly tighter and hotter around him. His head moved to her neck as his hips moved over and over again, wanting even in his desperation to make this last for her as long as he could.

When his fangs pierced her neck, she came again, and as he tasted her for the first time, his body pressed as deeply into her as it could, needing so much, and so many things that he had never needed before. He roared into her neck when his own release followed hers, gulping down a mouthful of blood, taking her into him, as she was doing for his body below.

He did not need a lot of blood, but it was so hard for him to stop that he was afraid for her. When he finally got her wound sealed he pulled back and called her name, worried that he had hurt her after all. At first she didn't answer. After the second time, she kept her eyes closed, but she smiled.

"Stop, worrying."

"Are you well?"

"No."

"No?!"

"I am fucking fabulous." He relaxed then and let his head drop down next to hers.

"Me, too," he said, kissing her neck again, over the spot where he had bitten her. Her arms tried to come up and hold him, to reassure him, but they wouldn't cooperate and fell back like limp noodles to the bed.

He moved over and turned her so she was spooned in her back to his chest. Slowly he ran his fingers along the edge of her hair line, as he looked down at her in awe.

In all his years, there was no experience that would compare with this. Why did she do this to him? How did she do this to him?

"Dunno, but you do it to me, too, Cowboy." He smiled at the back of her sleepy head, and then lay his own head on the pillow. He realized the light was still on, and left her just long enough to vamp over and turn it off. Dawn had come while they were making love, and while he did not require much rest, he did die for a few hours every day.

Tucking her closer to him, kissing her head one last time, he closed his eyes and let death take him away. The last thing he heard was her soft snore in his arms. The last thing he felt was an unusual warmth in his chest at being there with her.

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When he rose a few hours later it was to the sound of Sookie on the phone.

"How far is that from the safe house?"

"No, I won't wait, I'm going now. I'll take one of the cars we keep here at the house."

"And what did you find?" There was a longer pause this time and Eric left the bed to join her in the living room. She was dressed and he took a moment to go back for his clothes, reappearing almost immediately fully dressed and ready for action.

While she listened to whoever she was speaking with he noted appreciatively that she had closed the light tight blinds all over the house. His internal clock told him that the sun was nearing its zenith outside.

_She's not going to wait. This isn't the morning I had hoped we would have._

Regret and fear at her going alone without him cut through his middle and he wondered if he would be able to so easily separate business and personal after what they had shared last night.

Hearing him, she reached out a hand to him, bringing him to her side as she still listened. She laced her fingers through his and he felt her squeeze his hand, telling him that she shared at least part of his concerns, though he wasn't sure which ones.

"I'll pass that on before I head out. I will report in as soon as I have something." She hung up, dropped the phone and came into his arms in a single move that even he had trouble following. When her arms came around him, his face went down to her freshly showered hair and he took a deep breath. Unbidden his mind went back to last night and he lost himself a moment in the memory of what they had shared.

"I had a very different morning in mind, too." She said regretfully pulling back and titling her head back for a kiss, which he gladly gave her. He let himself linger longer than he should have since obviously things had been happening while he was dead.

"Tell me," he said resting his forehead against hers.

"Alcide called, Amelia has figured out how they are making FauX." She paused, "They kill them, Eric." He pulled back and looked into her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Hallow, Pam, Compton and whoever else is involved are capturing supes are killing them to create the drug that allows humans to take a walk on the supernatural side." She stopped again, the words she was saying were clearly hard to accept. "They cast a spell and trap them in the supe form if they change. If they just are like you and me they hold them while they drain their magical life force and bottle it for sale to the highest bidder."

"So, the corpse we found was a victim."

"Yes. Somehow they knew we were coming and they were reckless with disposal. We've never found remains like that before."

"If they can do this to any supernatural, then you are at risk, too," he said to her, his worry plain on his face.

"You, too, Eric. We already know they wanted you for sure." That had slipped his mind in his worry for her. "I think I know why, too." He waited, knowing he wasn't going to like this.

"Amelia thinks that the formula they are currently extracting has a high instability factor. You told me that the older the vampire the more in control they are, of their instincts and the needs. I think that if they add some ancient vampire blood to their mix they believe it will stabilize the formula, get a higher high for the user, if you will." He blinked and then closed his eyes, feeling foolish to have missed something that now seemed so obvious.

"Potentially," she went on, holding him tighter, "It could also make the transition easier to manage, or perhaps, even heal the user if any physical damage results from the transformation." She swallowed then and closed her eyes a moment. "There is also just the plain possibility that they just want to drain you and use you to make more vampire FauX."

"A FauX vampire with my strength and speed is a weapon they could make a lot of noise with," he said, thinking through her words and concluding that he had been right. He didn't like it at all.

"Amelia has another hit on the locator spell and I am headed out to check it." He wanted to stop her, take her back to bed and keep her safe, but this was what she did.

This was what they did. He had to accept it.

"Without backup? What about Alcide? Go get him, it will only take a moment." She shook her head.

"Alcide is out following up on another lead. Desmond gave him the mission personally." Eric closed his eyes and tried to find a way to accept this gracefully. His mind ran through dozens of possibilities and he could find nothing that comforted him.

"I know you have to go, and we are out of time, but I have a favor to ask. I had planned to talk to you about it at length today, but, there just isn't time." He was less calm than she had ever seen him, and despite how often she had wished he would be as emotional as she was about everything, seeing it was unnerving.

"I want us to exchange blood."

"What? Why?"

"If what we started last night is going where I think it is, then it would be a natural part of what is next. But this isn't about that, not directly. This is so I can find you, this is so I can know that you are safe and well. Please, I need to know that you well if you leave this house without me, and with the sun up I can't go with you!"

His passion about this moved her. There was so much she wanted to say to him about what had happened last night, but there was no time. If he needed this then she would do what she could to comfort to him until there was time to tell him how she felt, time to show him that she was his if he would have her. That if he could accept that there was more than just the Sookie he had met, if he could handle the truth of who and what she was, that she wanted to be his more than anything!

"Yes, I will take your blood." His fangs came down and he tore open his wrist to feed her.

"We will be one," he said to her, his feeling for her shining in his eyes as she took his wrist and drank deep of her lover, promising him wordlessly that as soon as she could she would tell him all the secrets of her heart and then they would truly be one.

As she drank, she felt him lean in and caress her neck, preparing to take her as he had last night.

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He listened as she drove away, feeling his blood move away with her. He could also feel that she was as reluctant to leave him as he was to let her go, and that she felt just as strongly for him as he did for her.

It was a small comfort. He paced like a wild animal, hating the sun and cursing his nature, completely out of control now that he was trapped and unable to be at her side. He stopped when he realized that she would laugh at him and tease him about wearing a hole in the carpet with his pacing.

He fell on the sofa, mind racing, willing the sun to go down sooner, for time to pass faster so that he could be free to go to her. Finally, he realized that this was wasted energy. He took out his phone and called Godric to update him on what was happening. It was early but Godric was a little older than Eric himself, so he knew he would be up.

After filling him in, Godric, having known him for a long time asked him what was wrong. Eric ran a hand through his hair and started pacing again. Where to begin?

"I fear my professional detachment has been compromised."

"I see," his boss and friend said, a smile evident in his voice. "Someone has finally made a dent in that hard head of yours?"

"Not a dent, a hole clean through it. She's…she's amazing Godric. Smart, funny, strong, and beautiful. I didn't know that women like this existed."

"I'm not sure they do, outside the rose colored filter of love," Godric teased.

"I never said-"

"You didn't have to. It comes across quite clearly in the glowing review of her. So, I take it she told you who she is then?" Eric frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"In addition to being SIN agent extraordinaire Sookie Stackhouse is also the-," but before Godric could finish his sentence their connection was severed. Eric pulled the phone away from his ear and saw that he had no signal.

Strange, he thought a second before he heard the heartbeats of four werewolves just outside the safe house. He turned as they burst in swinging silver chains clearly meant to capture him. They hesitated, not expecting him to be awake while the sun was up, but only for a moment, so clearly they had been warned that he could be up.

Someone had sent them.

_Sookie_, his mind cried out as the first one came at him, throwing a silver net meant to slow him down and make it easier for the others to subdue him with their chains.

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Leaving Eric had been harder than she wanted to admit. When she had taken his blood, she had wanted to take him back to bed and spend the day learning firsthand what afternoon delight truly meant. It was only the thought of more innocent supes being murdered and more humans being exposed to FauX that kept her going.

She spent the drive trying to get her head on straight, to focus on the task at hand, but thoughts of being with Eric the night before kept sneaking up on her. In all her long three hundred years, she had never experienced anything like the things he had shared with her last night.

Now, she looked back over the long list of suitors that she had dismissed with a different perspective. Before she had been untouched by their words and deeds. Their desires completely unfathomable to her. Eric Northman though, from the moment he had stood before her had stripped that away from her, turned her upside down and inside out. She had had plenty of chances to take a lover, but she had never wanted one before this beautiful vampire had entered her life.

She smiled now, thinking of how gentle he had been with her last night, how focused on her pleasure, even to the point that he held himself back from his own. She shivered in her seat as she drove and nearly ran a red light because her mind was filled with the look of wonder and need on his face as he hovered above her.

_Fuck, I gotta stop this! _

She shook herself and mentally started reviewing what she knew. It was critical that they stop Hallow and her crew before they tried again to get their hands on Eric! That sobered her right up, and pissed her right off.

Thinking of her beautiful lover being tortured and drained of his blood and the magics that animated him had her seeing nothing but red. By the time she got to the address Amelia had provided this morning she was shaking with rage.

_Being reckless won't help, Sookie. _

_Great, now he's trying to calm me down from my own psyche_. She smiled then and took a breath. Psyche Eric was right. Psycho Sookie needed to chill. She took a moment and tried to make him proud.

When she reached for the handle and exited the car, she wished he was here to see, hell, she just wished he was here.

The address was for an office building in the middle of downtown Shreveport. As soon as she exited the car and started toward the building she reached out to see if there were any thoughts she could pick up.

Getting nothing, and not being sure if that meant that Hallow was inside shielding or the building was empty she entered cautiously, weapon drawn. She was packing silver bullets, which would hurt some supernaturals but not all, still a bullet wound was the universal equalizer.

Everyone paused when you put a hole in them.

Entering cautiously, she did a sweep of each floor, and then moved up to the next. The building had seven floors, and she found nothing but empty space on all of them. Expecting the same on the seventh floor she was surprised to find two people there waiting for her.

One of them was the magical were that had eluded her at Crème two nights before. The other was her boss, the head of SIN Desmond Cataliades. Her shock at seeing him, her hesitation at processing what this meant was just long enough for Hallow to cast a spell that froze her where she stood.

When she realized that her limbs were frozen she tried to teleport away, back to the safe house, but found that she was also unable to teleport. Desmond stepped forward to stand before her.

"I am so very sorry about this, Sookie." He sighed then, and looked at her with the same eyes he had used when she was tiny and he would come to visit her, always bringing a special present for his special fairy girl, as he called her. "I didn't want it to come to this, but things got complicated."

Sookie tried to read his mind then, but Desmond was accomplished demon telepath himself. If he wanted to block his thoughts, he was more than able to do it. Hoping against hope she tried to read the witch beside him, but Hallow was also a blank wall.

It was then, in her anger and fear for what was coming next that she remembered Eric had insisted that she take his blood so he feel her, so he could find her. Worried that he would take on the sun to find her, she made a concentrated effort to calm the fuck down, and think about this.

She tried to find some logical and rational way to detach herself from the realization that the man she had trusted like a father was not only betraying her but everything they had both sworn to believe in and protect.

What was it he had said, "Trust is a funny thing, isn't it, Sookie?" _Thank all the powers that be that you are safe, my Eric,_ was the last thought she let herself have about the man she loved before she focused every ounce of energy she had into being calm and finding a way out of the mess she found herself in now.

32XXXXXXXX23

Four werewolves to subdue a vampire as old and strong as Eric Northman bordered on insulting. Forty would have had a hard time, and that was before he felt the spike of fear and anger from Sookie. When he felt his blood convey her emotion to him, it was over before it started.

When the first were threw his net at Eric he saw it pass through empty air and land on the floor. He had close view of it because he his head landed at the same time the net did. His body fell a moment later.

The others, seeing what happened tried to retreat, but there wasn't time. The next one fell with a hole in his chest where his heart had been beating a moment before. The third lost his head, his eyes blinking as he watched his body fall. The fourth was suspended above the floor, a cold vice around his throat and his mind swept away by glamour.

"WHO SENT YOU?"

"Hallow," he choked out dreamily, not able to breathe but not really concerned about it.

"WHERE IS SHE?"

"Waiting for the fairy." A moment later his throat was crushed and he landed beside his companions.

Eric was covered in blood and viscera, his fangs down, and his eyes nearly black. He was so caught up in what had happened, what he felt from her and the confirmation that she was in danger that at first he did not realize he was standing in the open door in full on sunlight.

And he was not burning.

He held his wrist out, turning it slowly, watching to see what would happen. Nothing did. He took a couple of steps outside and looked up, feeling sun warm his face for the first time in two thousand years.

There was a moment of pure joy, and then there was only rage and determination. He launched himself into the sky zeroing in on her location and moving faster than he had ever moved before in his immortal life.

32XXXXXXXXXXXXXX23

"You weren't supposed to be this good, Sookie. I thought it would be a passing thing. If I had dreamed for one moment that you could accomplished all that you have, I would never have let you join SIN." Her mind raced as he tried to justify what was happening here.

**_Why are you doing this? Why FauX?_** She sent this to him telepathically, taking a chance that just because he was blocking it didn't mean that he wasn't listening.

"The human race needs to be brought down!" he said, his eyes lighting up, revealing his usually hidden demon nature. "They waste this world, they don't deserve it!"

**_That's not for you to decide!_**

"If not me, who? They will be converted or they will fall. I care not which, but they will not be allowed to go on destroying the world with reckless abandon!" He started pacing now, lost in his rhetoric. "Soon there will be no water left to drink because they poison the land with everything they do. And we've all seen what happened when vampires made themselves known! If they find out about the rest of us they will hunt and persecute us from existence!"

**_So you risk exposure with FauX? Great plan!_**

"No, Sookie. You have to look at the bigger picture! When we perfect FauX we will make them all like us! By changing their fundamental natures we will change their set path to destruction! They can't persecute their own kind, and once we change their nature they will stop destroying their own environment! The human race is a dead end, supernaturals should rule this world!"

**_Clearly, you are not a student of history, Desmond. Do you remember the Holocaust? The Inquisition? Humans are excellent at persecuting each other, but they don't have a corner on the market. _**

**_What about the Fae Wars? The hatred among supernaturals for those not of their kind?_**

"We've proven that can be overcome! SIN is proof of that. Every day werewolf, vampire, fairy, demon, and witches they all work together for a common goal. It can work, Sookie!"

**_You are betraying that trust right now, Desmond! Can't you see that what you are doing is breaking that fragile trust we have established?_**

"No! You are wrong, Sookie. Someday you will see. I just need to get you out of the way and someday you will see!" He turned then to Hallow.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes," she said speaking for the first time since Sookie had arrived.

"And you're sure you can do it?"

"Yes."

"Make sure you only take the surface. Remember how I showed it to you? I want you take everything but the trunk in the corner of her mind."

"I understand," she said before she started muttering under her breath. Desmond turned back to her.

"It'll all be fine in a minute, Sookie. Just hold on." Realizing what he was planning, she started to panic.

**_No! Don't do this. Please!_**

Hallow continued chanting and Sookie felt her mind being pried open. She fought as hard as she could, using all the techniques she had learned over the centuries to shut her out, but it was a losing battle. Desmond had taught her most of those same techniques, so he knew better than anyone how to get around them.

Deeper in Hallow slid, and Sookie could not stop her. The witch waved her arms and flash of light passed over Sookie. She closed her eyes and tried hard to hold on to something, anything of who she was.

Her mind showed her Eric, his face from last night, and then it slipped away.

Him offering her his wrist just a short time ago, and then that too slipped away.

Crème, dancing, Alcide, her coming to SIN and making her way in this world of excitement and intrigue.

One by one it was all stripped away from her.

She tried to scream out her denial as the trunk in the corner of her mind opened, and all those old memories came out, like clothes that didn't fit any longer.

She had wanted to tell him…something.

Tell…who…what?

At that moment the windows on the west side of the building imploded, raining glass across the floor when Eric entered moving faster than anyone could see. He caught Sookie as she fell to the ground, freed now from Hallow's spell.

Hallow reached out to Desmond and he teleported them away while Eric's attention was focused on the girl. Eric felt the air shift and turned seeing nothing there, he took a deep breath but the only scent in the room was Sookie.

He knew that a man a woman had been present, but he could not regret that his focus had been on the woman he now held in his arms, terrified that she had been damaged beyond repair because he had not arrived in time.

"Sookie?" he called her name, shaking her gently. She moaned and her eyelids fluttered. He let out a breath of relief, showering her face with kisses.

"Talk to me, Sookie. What happened? Are you well?" Her eyes opened and after a moment they focused on his face. She blinked and then frowned.

"Sookie?" he said again, sounding uncertain and scared. Her lips moved, and she tried to speak. At first, even his sharp ears couldn't hear her and then he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"What's a Sookie?" Surely, she was teasing him.

"Sookie, please, don't do that. Tell me that you are well!" She started to struggle then and he released her when it seemed that she would fling herself from his arms if he did not set her away from him.

"My name, sir, is Princess Susanna Brigant. I don't know what a Sookie is, or where you might find one, and I would thank you to keep your hands to yourself!"

"Princess…" he said softly, his eyes wide and filled with fear and wonder as he stared at the stranger before him. "…Susanna Brigant."

"Yes, that's right. Who the hell are you?"


	5. The Princess & The Vampire

_"__My name, sir, is Princess Susanna Brigant. I don't know what a Sookie is, or where you might find one, and I would thank you to keep your hands to yourself!"_

_"__Princess…" he said softly, his eyes wide and filled with fear and wonder as he stared at the stranger before him. "…Susanna Brigant."_

_"__Yes, that's right. Who the hell are you?"_

_32XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX23_

_FauX- The Princess & The Vampire_

Her eyes darted around the large empty room while she waited for this stranger to explain himself to her. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten here. The last thing she remembered was being at the palace, thinking of running away. The next thing was waking up in this stranger's arms. She looked at him then, scanning his appearance for clues of who he was and why he was there with her.

Her eyes widened when she recognized that he was covered in dried blood and other unpleasant things. Immediately concerned for her own clothing she looked down and huffed indignantly to discover that he had also ruined her outfit. Stamping her foot on the floor, she looked up at him, ready to give him the tongue lashing of his life when she suddenly realized she was standing in front of a vampire.

Her rage turned to abject terror as she recalled all the warning stories from her kin about what happens when a fairy comes to close to a vampire. Her hand came up to her mouth to stifle a scream and she took a step back away from him, trying to gather herself and teleport away before he came at her full on with his vampire speed.

Perhaps he had already killed her kin and it was their blood he was covered in!

The absolute terror he felt from her through their fledgling blood bond brought Eric to his knees. He had handled being able to walk in the sun, and was prepared to assist her in any way he could with what had happened to her, but this last thing, feeling her fear of him sent him sailing over the edge of his reason.

His face a mask of pain he sensed she was about to go, teleport away from him and this place. Searching his mind for something to say that might buy him the few precious moments he needed to figure out what was going on he said the first thing that came to his mind to try and ease her fear.

"Geronimo." She cocked her head to the side, shocked now more than scared of the large vampire on his knees in front of her. How did he know to say that?

"What does that mean to you, vampire?" she demanded eyes narrow and cold. She was curious enough to linger a moment, but not trusting enough to believe that he understood what he had just said.

"It means trust me, S-Princess. It means trust me." Her accent had changed along with everything else about her. To the uneducated ear she sounded like upper crust British citizenry, but Eric knew that it indicated Fae royalty. She wasn't kidding about being a princess.

Why was a princess working at SIN, under an assumed name? Why hadn't she told him? "It's your word, Princess. You told me that if you trust someone you have just jump in and do it, and that you say, 'Geronimo' to yourself when you do. It's kind of become our watchword since we met."

"And when did we meet?"

"Two nights ago in Dallas."

"Dallas…Texas?" her face was scrunched up now, clearly disbelieving him. "Is that where we are now?" She glanced around again.

"No. We are in Shreveport, Louisiana, now."

"Doing what? What are you to me?" He opened his mouth to answer and then hesitated. He had no idea what they were doing right now, and he had no idea what he was to her. Less than an hour ago he had been her lover, her only lover, and her partner, and they had shared blood.

What happened to my Sookie? His mind cried out in anguish, feeling the hole that had appeared in his chest when she asked him who he was grow by exponential proportion and threaten to swallow him from the inside out. Oh, it hurt. It hurt a lot. Oh, it burned!

Wait. The burning was on the outside. He glanced down at his skin and saw that his vampire SPF factor was fading.

"Oh, I don't feel…feel so good." Seeing her micro-tell as she read him immediately followed by a look of genuine concern on her face, he watched as she took a tentative step toward him.

"Do you need help?" Her eyes were wide and again he could sense fear and doubt from her. He nodded and rose to his feet, the sheer size of him scaring her back another step. He looked around and saw that there was nowhere he could go here in this building to hide from the sun. He grunted as he started smoking.

"Sir, you are on fire!" That would have meant something so different just a few hours ago he thought sadly.

"Will you teleport us to someplace safe? Someplace that we can figure out together what is going on? Please, So-Princess." He knew about Geronimo, and he knew that she could teleport herself and someone else. He kept getting her name wrong, but it seemed to bother him much more than her.

"Very well," she said, stepping closer to him and looking up and up and up until she finally found his eyes again. "Picture-"

"Where I want to go in my mind. I know." He was in tremendous pain from the sunlight, but her not remembering they had teleported together seemed to hurt him so much more than any sunlight ever could.

Who was the vampire? Who was this vampire to her?

She looked into his mind and found the place he wanted to go. "Hold on," she said, and they were there a moment later. She barely got a look around before a gust of air told her that she was now surrounded by vampires. Instinctively her hands lit up and crouched down ready to blast away at whatever wretched vampire dared touch her.

This one was shorter than the behemoth she had just teleported. Closer to her own height, with beautiful eyes that seemed to radiate calm. His short auburn hair framed his pale face accentuating his cheek bones and his fangy smile.

"Hold, Majesty," he said raising a hand in a gesture of peace and good will. She dropped her hands and rose before him.

"Am I supposed to know you, too?" she huffed, clearly upset that she was out of the loop on whatever was happening.

"We did meet once long ago, and recently as well, but you did not seem to remember me. I am Godric." Before she could reply the second vampire turned to the first. "Report, Eric."

Eric…something flickered in her mind, and then it was gone. Frustrated and still uncertain what we happening she turned to the one called Eric and waited to see what he would say. Part of her was relieved to see that he was now healing, though she was not certain why she cared for his welfare.

"When our call was interrupted I was attacked by four were's who I dispatched after learning that Sookie had been lured into a trap. I discovered in the course of battle that I was immune to sunlight I went to her immediately. However, I was too late." His tone told her that he was anguished over his tardiness.

"What do you mean?" the second vampire pressed.

"Something has taken her memory. She does not recall who she is or what has been happening or…what we were to each other."

"What do you mean? Of course I know who I am! I told you I am Princess Susanna Brigant! Are you daft? What is happening? What do you mean 'what we were to each other?" She stamped her foot, and her hands lit up again. "I demand that you explain yourselves to me now!" Eric rounded on her fury with his own.

"You are my Sookie, goddamnit! You are a SIN agent, and we were working together to find the makers and distributors of a drug called FauX! Hours ago you…we…FUCK!" He clenched his fists and towered over her as if he could force the breaking of this maddening spell with his will alone.

"DON'T YELL AT ME YOU CRETINOUS LOUT! I AM STANDING RIGHT HERE! TALK SENSE! I WAS JUST AT THE PALACE AND NOW I FIND MYSELF SURROUNDED BY VAMPIRES! YOU WILL TELL ME THE TRUTH OR I WILL TAKE IT FROM YOUR MIND!" She was standing toe to toe with him, refusing to back down or away no matter how frightening he was in his madness.

"THEN TAKE IT, PRINCESS!" He demanded, saying Princess like it was a word that tasted terrible to him. "LOOK INSIDE ME AND SEE THE TRUTH OF WHAT WE ARE!"

No one spoke to her that way, not even her father! Who did he think he was? Lost in her fury she reached out with her hands alight and placed them on his face, freezing him and stopping the flow of words from his lips.

She saw herself dancing practically naked on a stage surrounded by commoners and she heard and felt what he thought what he saw her.

**_So…fucking…beautiful. _**

She gasped and went further, moving faster. The fight, the blast of light, the kiss on the street, the flying. She could not believe that she was this person he saw to her to be. This SIN Agent Sookie Stackhouse. She pulled away from the horrible memories of the photos of the victims of FauX, the corpse they had found, rushing past them only to find…herself.

She saw the memory of her removing her clothes and offering herself to this man before her, this vampire. She gasped then and went to pull her hands away, but the lessening of her freezing spell allowed Eric to move.

"NO!" he thundered at her, his large hands coming up to cover hers. "YOU LOOK! YOU FUCKING LOOK! I WON'T LET YOU LOOK AWAY. WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS YOU ARE NO FUCKING COWARD! LOOK! SEE!"

"No," she whispered, seeing what had transpired between them, how happy she had been, the pleasure they had shared. The way she had taken his hand the next morning, the sharing of blood before she left. His fear for her, and what had happened with the were's whose blood he now wore like a badge of courage.

His only thought had been Sookie…no his only thought had been _her_. No matter what her name was, to him she was Sookie, and his only thoughts were of her as he fought to evade capture, as he risked himself in the sunlight, as he called her name to wake her in his arms.

She felt his fear for her safety turn to pain when she did not recognize him, a pain so deep and biting that she whimpered and again tried to pull back. This time he let her go. She stepped back, her eyes filled with tears as she looked at this person before her that held such a large part of her that she had no memory of at all.

How could a stranger know her better than she knew herself? How could this have happened?

"Do you see now?" He asked her, taking a tentative step toward her. Her head was banging with pain, and her heart was breaking but she didn't know if it was for his loss or hers. She took a deep breath and meant to speak but instead only sobbed out loud.

He watched as she tried to speak, so overcome by what she had seen that words were beyond her reach no matter how much she wished them to come to her. Completely overwhelmed and lost, she felt the world start to dim and swim in her line of vision. The last thing he saw was his face change from anger and pain to concern and then everything went black.

Eric caught her before she could hit the floor and picked her up in his arms before turning to his friend of over a thousand years with tears of blood on his face.

"Godric?" he whispered, before falling to his knees at Godric's feet, careful to keep Sookie safe in his arms.

"We will fix this, my friend," Godric promised him, squeezing his friends shoulder to offer what little comfort he could.

32XXXXXXXXXX23

After settling the Princess in a room Eric and Godric sat down in his office and started working through what had happened.

"Why was Sookie alone?"

"Alcide, her second in command had been sent on a special assignment by Desmond."

"What assignment?"

"I don't know. I don't think she did either." Eric rubbed his eyes and sighed. "You knew who she was. You were going to tell me when we were interrupted."

"Yes."

"And you didn't think to tell me when you made us partners?"

"I didn't know it would matter. She has more than demonstrated her competence in the intelligence community, and I didn't know that you were personally invested." Eric scoffed.

"Well, I am."

"Yes, I can see that. Would knowing have changed that?"

"Yes! No! Fucked if I know! What does it even mean that she is Princess Susanna Brigant?"

"I first met her nearly two hundred years ago at a state event for The Council. She had accompanied her father, Niall Brigant. You have heard of him?" Eric's eyes grew large in shock.

"Everyone knows Niall Brigant." Godric smiled. "And Sookie is his daughter?!"

"Yes, and his heir."

"Heir?"

"Yes, she is to be the Queen of Fae when he steps down."

"But that would mean that she is to marry a fairy and continue the royal line?"

"Which rumor has it is why she ran away."

"Ran away? If you knew who and where she was then she must not have done a very good job at running away."

"No, I don't suppose she did." He paused then, staring into the fire that was burning in the room. "Her rebellion at her supposed destiny is legendary among the immortals. She fought the notion of marrying for state reasons. She wanted to be free to choose her own mate, should she ever be so inclined."

_And she chose me_, Eric thought, feeling a moment of elation followed by another sharp pain as his next thought followed_. And then she forgot me_. Godric read the expression flying across his face.

"She didn't choose to forget you, Eric, or the life she had made for herself. It was taken from her." Closing his eyes a moment and trying desperately to find his professional detachment he turned his mind to the facts and pulled them tightly around him to bandage his bleeding soul.

"Does Desmond know who she is?"

"Since he is a long standing friend of the Brigant family I believe so, yes."

"Then why let her assume another identity?"

"To protect her? To keep her close? To allow a controlled rebellion in hopes that it would pass in time."

"How long as she been pretending to be Sookie Stackhouse?"

"About ten years now."

"And Desmond gave her the rank she has now, to pacify the Princess!"

"Quite the opposite. She has earned everything she has now on her own merit. She came into SIN as any other supernatural would, and made her own success."

"But why? Why when she could have anything and everything that she wanted? Why do it the hard way? Hell, why do it all?"

"I believe I did it to prove something. At least that is why I think I would have done it." Both vampires rose to their feet suddenly, embarrassed that they had not heard her approach until she was standing in the door.

"Prove what?" Eric asked, unable to stop a step toward the woman who looked so much like the woman that he had fallen in love with. She held her ground, but did not beckon him closer.

"That there is more to the worlds than what I am wearing to the next ball. That there are more important ways to make a difference than sitting on a cold throne where I am a slave to the masses, but remain nothing more than a figure head to them, separate and aloof.

"To prove that I am real, and not a fake person who is nothing more than a title and an obligation that I was born into and never asked to be a part of. I wanted to be someone real." She had stepped further into the room with each reason she added to her list and found herself standing before the beautiful vampire that had held her when she had first awaked into this mad world.

He was cleaned up now, and while she had been aware of him under the blood and anger, seeing him now captivated her. He looked at her with the same expression on his face and Godric had to suppress a smile at the very obvious connection these two still shared despite the magics that had tried to separate them.

"You were someone real, Sookie." Eric's voice was soft as he looked down at her now, standing so close to him. "You _are_ someone real to me."

"But, I'm not the person you knew. I am not Sookie Stackhouse, and unless I can find a way to remember her, I will never be her. She is the sum of her experiences and I have been robbed of those events that formed her."

"I see her in you," he took a step closer.

"Really?"

"Yes. The reckless temper, the confidence, the demanding nature." A frown crossed her lovely face.

"And you care for this graceless creature you describe?"

"Deeply," he said, rumbling in his chest as he held her gaze. He saw her tell and knew she was listening to his thoughts, seeking absolute truth.

**_More than anything._**

"More than anything."

"Why?" her tongue came out to moisten her lips.

**_Because she is also brave, and good, and bold about what she thinks and feels. Because I have waited so long for her that there is no way I could fail to recognize her when I finally found her at my side._**

"So long?" she asked softly.

**_I wished for you on a million stars, in a thousand lives, across oceans of time, your name matters not. I can see your soul, woman mine. _**

"You could just call me that, if…if I never get my memories back. If you still want to I mean?"

**_Call you what?_**

"Mine?" She reached a hand out to him then, and he met it lacing his fingers through hers. She closed her eyes, sighing softly, feeling something right itself inside her that had been off since she had awakened in his arms.

"Mine!" he said fiercely, stepping closer to her, pulling her against him with his large hand spanning her back. Feeling that gesture from him triggered another ghost of memory in her mind. She had felt that hand before, and though she could not remember when or how, she knew that it had felt just as good and comforting as it did right now. She rested her head on his chest, her hand open flat on his chest beside her face, while she squeezed the fingers that were locked with hers.

Her eyes were closed, the images she had seen in his mind flitting past. "I don't know who I was, but even as the woman I am now I know that I have wished for you as well." He hummed a little as he head come down and placed a kiss on the top of head. She sighed and snuggled deeper into him, knowing that it was foolish, and dangerous and also knowing that never in her long life had she felt as safe and cared for as she did right now in this moment.

"Geronimo," they said at the same time.

"Jinx," they said at the same time.

She looked up at him the first smile on her face since her memory had been taken, and saw a matching expression in his face.

"Tell me, what do you want, woman mine?"

"My memories of you back."

"Done." He leaned down slowly, giving her a chance to pull back if she wasn't ready. She rose on her toes to reach his lips that much sooner. It was a tentative kiss at first, but she was having none of that, moving her hand up to his neck to pull him deeper into the kiss she felt her body tingle all over and she wanted to be closer to him. When he finally pulled back she took a shaky breath and brought her hand down to her lips that were still vibrating from his touch.

_Oh, my beautiful vampire. I think I am going to love you_, she thought.

32XXXXXXXX23

Eventually, they remembered that Godric was in the room and soon they were all three putting their heads together to figure out what had happened and what they were going to do next.

"Eric, how is it that you could move about in sunlight?" Godric asked, his tone filled with awe at the notion of such an event. Eric thought a moment.

"I don't know for certain, but the only thing new in two thousand years was that she shared her blood with me."

"Yes, there are myths about how the blood of the Fae could allow such a thing," Godric said thoughtfully, his expression distant as he searched the archives of his vast mind.

"I should contact Desmond," she suddenly blurted. "He must be so worried about me!" They stared at her. "What?"

"I'm not certain it is safe to let anyone know where you are at present, Princess," Godric said, his expression now serious and dark.

"But I heard you when I came in. You said that Desmond had helped me when I ran away, that he had given me a job at SIN. From what I saw in Eric's mind, this case is dangerous. He would be worried, wouldn't he?"

"Yes, he should be worried. But I wonder at the coincidence of his special mission for your back up when you were being lured into a trap."

"I have known Desmond since I was a child! You couldn't possibly be suggesting that he would do me harm?" Eric rubbed her arm soothingly.

"One could suggest that no harm has been done to you." She looked at Godric frowning.

"No harm? My life has been taken from me! How is that not harmful?"

"Your false identity as a SIN Agent has been taken from you, I agree, but you remain intact as the Princess Brigant. I wonder, why go to the trouble to take only the part of you that could be of benefit in finding out who was behind FauX?" She gasped.

"You think I found out something that made it necessary to remove my memories!"

"Likely, yes. Would you give me some time to check out some things? I have my best team on the information that you and Eric had provided to me before this happened. They were looking into the background and financials for Hallow Stonebrook. We know that she was the were at Crème the night you and Eric met, and the evidence indicates that she was there to capture Eric. You believed this morning that introducing the blood of a vampire as old as Eric would stabilize their formula for FauX."

"I did?"

"Yes, and if you were right then there must be some evidence that we can find of where she has been and who she has been working with outside of Ravenscroft and Compton."

"They're vampires, right?"

"Yes." She looked at him sharply then.

"Forgive me, Godric, but you are as old as Eric, aren't you?" He nodded, smiling slightly at where her mind had gone. She may have lost her training and experience as a SIN agent but it was clear that she had a natural aptitude for the work.

"Yes, which means that I, too could be a target." She stood quickly.

"We should leave this place then."

"I have an excellent security system and a team of wolves that guard my property, Princess. I assure we are quite safe here." She looked around skeptically, and then resumed her seat beside Eric.

"How long before you hear back from your team?" Eric asked. He shared her sense of urgency to do something, and felt a growing sense of frustration at having nothing to do at the moment.

"I expect to hear something in the next few hours. Perhaps you and Princess Brigant could use this time to reacquaint yourselves?" She looked at Eric, his memories in her mind. "You could avail yourselves of my training facilities?"

"Sparring?" Eric asked.

"For a start. Perhaps her training will come back as you put her to the test."

32XXXXXXXXXX23

Godric's training area was huge room, almost like a dance studio with its open wooden floor and mirrors that ran full length along one wall. The opposite wall was covered with weapons of every era and style. Countless swords, knives, maces, bows, guns, it was a psychos cornucopia, or the room of an ancient who had fought his way through time.

She felt a new layer of wonder descend on her for her host and the vampire that stood in front of her. It was one thing to know that they were so old, it was another to be faced with tangible physical evidence of who they were.

She was wondering which weapon Eric would choose to test her, and considering the danger of iron content when he spoke to her in a quiet voice.

"I wish you had told me." His back was to her, and his broad shoulders were hunched in the pain and disappointment that she could hear in his voice.

"Me, too."

"I wish at least you could tell me why you didn't trust enough to share who you were with me."

"Me, too."

"Is that all you can say?" He turned to her then, standing tall as he faced her, anger in his eyes. Inside he knew that his feeling was not rational. She could not change what had happened, nor could she truly answer him. Nor could he stop feeling some sense of betrayal. It came and went, and he disliked feeling so unsettled and out of control.

He had mastered that hundreds of years ago, and it only angered him further to be so vulnerable now, when he could least afford it. She took a deep breath and crossed her arms over chest, protecting herself from his questions. Then she dropped them, coming to some internal decision.

"You have known me less than forty-eight hours, do you think it reasonable that you would know all of me in that short of time?"

Hadn't he said something like that to her when she confessed her telepathy and grew angry at him for not revealing that he knew? Was this what it had come to? That he had lost so much of his control that a mere three hundred year old infant needed to school him in patience and reasonableness?

It was wickedly funny, and it cut him to the bone feeding his resentment and anger at her deliberate omissions and deceptive seduction.

He had not known that being alone with her would have this effect on him, but he was here and in it now, and he was lost.

"You tricked me into falling in love with a woman who doesn't exist!"

"Stop. I was in that room with you a short time ago. I felt you! And you felt me! I can't tell you things I don't know. Tell me what is bothering you, don't obfuscate and play games with me, Eric."

"You are to marry another!" _Oh_, she thought. She had been listening when Godric filled him in on her destiny.

"That was my father's plan, yes."

"You made me think…you let me think…I felt…WHAT THE FUCK, SOOKIE? Oh, right, not Sookie. I forgot. You're not Sookie, and I can't ask her why she played me, BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T FUCKING EXIST!"

"So, all your talk of knowing me when you saw me was just talk then?" she fired back at him.

"You dare ask me to call you mine and fool that I am in that moment it was all I wanted so I did, but the truth is, Princess Brigant, you are to marry another and bear an heir to the throne of Fae!"

"Again, that was my father's plan, yes! What is your point?"

"I CAN'T GIVE YOU A CHILD! I CAN'T BE THE ONE TO MARRY YOU, PRINCESS! I CAN'T! AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH I WISH IT OTHERWISE I JUST FUCKING CAN'T DO THAT!" The walls shook with his pain and anger, and so did Susanna.

"Oh, my beautiful, Eric," she said softly moving toward him.

"NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" he screamed moving back from her, a look of horror on his face_. This must be how he felt when I pulled back from him, asked him to set me away from him_. It burned because all she wanted to do was console him. "I CAN'T BEAR FOR YOU TOUCH ME AGAIN, KNOWING THAT YOU WILL SOON LEAVE ME!" Refusing to give and needing desperately to end his pain she searched her mind to offer him the best explanation she could under the circumstances.

"Last night, well, to me it was last night, I thought of what it meant to be Princess of Fae, and I felt the obligation and emptiness nearly swallow me whole. I knew in that moment that for all the things that stood before me I wanted none of them. I wanted none of that.

"I had been courted by hundreds of suitors, and felt nothing for them. Not one in any of them moved me and touched my heart. I thought…I thought that I was simply not able to feel that kind of passion. I would think that now, but for the memories in your mind.

"In your mind I see a strong woman who saw a man that touched her soul and she wanted him to touch her body. She gave herself to you because she wanted you as she had never wanted another in all her long life.

"I may not be who I was in that moment, but in that moment she was ME. She knew everything that I know right now, and she chose you.

_I_ chose you, Eric, above _all_ things, above _all_ people to share myself with. I regret more than I can say that I don't have the memories of that moment or the ones that led to that decision but _I_ was there. I am not _her_, but she was _ME!_

"In the ten years I don't recall, I can tell that only you moved me that way, because I had never taken another lover. I took _you_, I wanted _you_. I _want_ you."

"But- "

"No, there are no buts, Eric. I want you. Is that all right?" He made a sound like a sob then. "What? What did I say?"

"The first time you told me that you wanted me, you asked me if that was all right."

"And was it?"

"More than all right," he said, a single tear sliding down his face.

"And now?"

"Now I am not sure that you didn't tell me who you really were because you planned to leave me and return to your destiny."

"If I chose you then I already knew that you were my destiny."

"But-"

"No, no buts. Others may have plans, and they have decided what they think I should do, but this is my life and I chose you. I choose you."

"But, children…"

"Are wonderful, and fun to play with, but not something I have ever wanted. The only thing I have ever wanted was _you._ Please hear me, Eric. I don't know why I didn't find time in the forty eight hours of chasing witches and vampires and being spelled to tell you my whole life story, surely I could have squeezed in a couple of hundred years if I had really tried. I guess I fucked up, but it's done. She is gone, but I was there when that choice was made.

"I am here now."

"And tomorrow?" he asked her quietly.

"Probably punching you in your stubborn face if you still aren't hearing me, but still here none the less." He opened his arms then and she ran into them, pressing herself as tightly to him as she could. She looked up at him about to say something that she hoped would make him smile when suddenly the room exploded in light.

She knew who it was before he spoke and she turned to face him, placing Eric at her back shielding him with as much of her body as she could.

"Susanna!" Niall called out in a loud commanding tone. "You will come with me now!" She reached back for Eric's hand, threading her fingers through his and giving a squeeze before she replied.

"Father," she acknowledged, dipping her head but not stepping away from the vampire whose very life she now feared was in danger.

"I won't ask again, daughter!"

"I am not returning with you, father." His face registered first surprise and then anger. "There is much that needs to be done here, and I mean to stay and see this to its end."

"I was told this farce was over and that you were ready to return to Fae!"

"Who told you that?"

"Desmond."

"Well, he is wrong, father." She stopped then, tilting her head to the side. "You knew I was with SIN all this time?"

"Of course I did."

"Then why not come sooner?"

"Desmond and I thought it was a passing fancy that soon you would return home once it was out of your system." _I've heard that before…but where_?

**_You weren't supposed to be this good, Sookie. I thought it would be a passing thing…_**

_Who had said that to her? It was right there, almost…_

"I've waited long enough! You will return with me to Fae at once!"

"No, father. I shall never return to Fae. I will never take the throne and I will never bear the next heir to Fae."

"Nonsense! This is your destiny!"

"My destiny stands here with me, father. His name is Eric Northman, and I am his."

She expected any number of things but got the one thing that she would never have guessed in another three hundred years. Niall Brigant laughed.

"Oh, Susanna. A vampire? Seriously?" She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to collect himself. After a few minutes he saw that she was indeed serious about the large undead man who stood behind her with a furious look on his face. The insolent bastard has actually dared to drop fang on him! "Enough, we are going now!" The last of his humor left him when he saw her hands light up and her stance change to readiness for attack.

"You dare?"

"Yes, I dare. I have chosen, and I mean to stand behind that decision come what may." Niall knew that tone, and that expression. He had heard and seen them from himself many times. She would fight him to the death, if he tried to take her, and if he harmed the vampire that she claimed the result would likely be the same.

_How could Desmond have been so wrong? He told me that her memories of her time in the mortal world were gone and that she was ready to return home! I thought she was being held against her will, but clearly she is here of her own volition. _

_What had happened?_

"Father, what were you told of my memories?"

"That you had been spelled and that you remembered nothing of your time away from Fae."

"This is true, I do not."

"And still, you have no wish to return?"

"It would be more likely that I would return if my memories of Fae had been wiped away, alas, I retain them all. Including our last conversation, father." He cringed as he too recalled that last fight between them. It had been particularly ugly, and was the main reason why he had allowed her to take her time away working for Desmond at SIN.

He had kept a close eye on her, to be sure, and had even felt a certain sense of pride as he observed her accomplishments, but had consoled himself with the notion that it would all loose its luster and she would return humbled to Fae, ready to accept her role as leader of their people. Some nights he even went so far as to believe that this time away and experience in leading would benefit her monarchy. Seeing her now, hearing her now, he realized how wrong he had been.

She would never take her rightful place. She had turned her back on him and Fae once and for all.

"Susanna…?" He reached toward her.

"I will love you always, father."

"And I you as well, Susanna." He was gone in flash of light. She let out a breath and fell back against Eric. His arms came around her a moment before turning her to face him.

"You're still here," he said reverently, touching her face softly with his large hand, so gentle that it made her ache inside. She captured his hand and turned it to kiss his palm.

"And I really wanted to punch your stubborn face," she teased him.

"Would you settle for kissing it instead?"

"Yes, but later." He smiled.

"There's my girl, always with the _later._" She pecked his cheek and took his hand leading him from the room at a run. They burst into Godric's office just as he was hanging up the phone.

"I have just received word that Hallow may be working with –"

"Desmond!" Susanna declared, cutting him off.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Niall was just here, he told me that Desmond had told him of my memory loss, and since you had convinced me not to contact him-"

"The only way he could know was if he had been one who took them!" Eric finished, sounding furious.

"We're missing something," Susanna said, pacing the room frantically. Eric felt his undead heart warm at seeing such a very Sookie action from her. Luckily, Godric was not smitten.

"What do you mean, Princess?'

"Susanna, please?" she said, pausing to smile at him. "I have officially abdicated the throne." His face registered shock and then he looked at Eric and smiled knowingly.

"I see. Then, Susanna, what do you mean?"

"Why tell Niall?"

"I'm not following, lover," Eric said, stepping up to place his hands on her shoulders and stop her pacing. She smiled at him.

"I like that better than anything else you have ever called me."

"FOCUS!" Godric called out, trying to get them back on track.

"Right," Susanna shook herself, and closed her eyes, concentrating to see the pieces come together. "Niall knew I was at SIN the whole time, but left me there. Desmond took my memories and told Niall that I was ready to come home. Niall came to me immediately to take me home."

"How did he know where you were?" Godric asked, for the first time seeming to register that his security had been breached.

"I could never truly hide from Niall, it was why I hadn't tried to run away sooner. Fae blood calls to Fae blood, you see. There is no way I could ever hide from him."

"And Desmond knew this, too?"

"Yes, he has been father's closest friend for centuries." Her eyes widened. "Oh, no!"

Just as she realized why Desmond would send Niall to get her she felt the air shimmer around them indicating the arrival of demon teleportation. A moment later clouds of silver gas filled the room, dropping both Godric and Eric to the floor, their skin burning wherever the gas touched. She moved toward Eric and reached him just as a gunshot rang out in the room.

She felt the bullet as it entered her side and heard Eric scream her name before everything went black**_._**


	6. I'll Protect You

_Last time on Faux…_

_Just as she realized why Desmond would send Niall to get her she felt the air shimmer around them indicating the arrival of demon teleportation. A moment later clouds of silver gas filled the room, dropping both Godric and Eric to the floor, their skin burning wherever the gas touched. She moved toward Eric and reached him just as a gunshot rang out in the room._

_She felt the bullet as it entered her side and heard Eric scream her name before everything went black._

32XXXXXXXXXXXX23

_**FauX-I'll Protect You**_

"She wasn't supposed to there, goddamnit! He as supposed to take her back to Fae! How could you shoot her?"

Susanna struggled to open her eyes. The pain in her side was sharp and burning and she felt weakened to the point that she couldn't move.

"And you placed her in iron? Are you trying to kill her?"

Desmond, she thought, struggling to hold on to consciousness, still struggling to move. Eric! What happened to Eric? Her eyes would still not obey her.

"Calm yourself, Desmond. Really. You see she is already healing from the wound." A woman's voice, Hallow or Ravenscroft?

"Healing? How can that be?" The woman chuckled.

"I think your precious fairy has taken the blood of one of the vampires we have captured." Captured? Oh, my Eric!

"Never! My Susanna would never take a vampires blood! They must have forced her! They will pay for this trespass on the Princess of Fae! Niall will kill them all!"

"Now, Desmond, let's think about this. We need those vampires to attempt a new more successful version of FauX. Do you really think it wise to alert Niall to their location so that he can eliminate them? He doesn't know what you are doing, and you have told me that you thought he would accept it once we had proven it successful, but in the meantime it was best to keep this from him." She heard Desmond sigh.

"Come away with me, now dear. Let me make it better. She will heal soon and then you can talk reason to her. The iron content in her chains is very low. It won't inflict any permanent damage. You have my word." They were moving away then, and she heard a door open and close as they moved further away.

She tried again to open her eyes, but a sharp pain, followed by the sound of metal hitting metal took her breath away. She swam away in the darkness calling to Eric over and over as she slipped away.

32XXXXXXXXXX23

She was moving when she came around. Eric, are we flying again? She tried to call to him, but realized a moment later that she was not flying with her beloved vampire, she was being pushed down a long hall on a table. When she managed to crack her eyes open she saw a ceiling with lights passing above her.

Focusing on that she counted the lights as they passed over her head. Fourteen later she was pushed through swinging doors and she saw that was in some kind of lab. The movement stopped and she relaxed again, feeling so tired that breathing was an effort.

Darkness took her again.

32XXXXXXXXXXX23

"Wake up, Susanna." Desmond? Had Desmond come to visit her at the Palace? She so loved her visits with him. He seemed to understand her as her father never had.

"Susanna." He called her name again, more urgently this time. "Wake up, Susanna." Concentrating as hard she could her eyes opened to see Desmond leaning over looking worried.

"There you are, my Princess," he said, smoothing her hair back from her brow as he had done many times in her life. When she was ill, when she going to bed and he was tucking her in a story, when he knew how unhappy she was with the life that Niall had planned for her.

"Desmond," she managed to rasp out. Her throat was dry and her body felt like she had beaten. He turned away a moment and then came back with a cup of water and a straw. He held it for her to sip and when she had enough he set it down and turned back to her.

"Oh, Susanna! Why didn't you go back to Fae with Niall? You would have been safe there!" It started to come back to her then.

The conversation with Niall, the realization that Desmond had been behind FauX this whole time. She looked around the room as much as her head would allow seeking Eric and Godric as she remembered the silver gas and the realization that the only reason Desmond would have sent Niall after her was so he could find her and in turn the ancient vampires that had been his true targets all along. Eric…

She saw him then, behind her and to her right, strapped to a table with silver. He was unconscious and hooked into an IV that was draining him slowly of his ancient and magical blood.

"No!" she rasped out, struggling to rise and go to him. In her flailing she saw that Godric was next to him, trussed up in the same manner and also in the process of being drained.

"Shhhh, calm yourself, Susanna. It's nothing you need concern yourself about."

"You're killing them!" she continued to struggle, causing the iron chains to touch her skin directly. The pain was biting and she hissed and stopped moving as she felt her strength fade even further. The intensity of her pain caused Eric to stir in his chains as well. His fangs coming down as his beautiful blue eyes opened, searching for her.

"Sookie!" he rasped out, his gaze finding her. Feeling her distress and seeing her chained made him fight harder to come to her. She heard the silver burn him and saw the blood start to drain from him faster. He had to stop.

"Eric! Eric, it's ok, baby. Don't struggle. Please stop." Hearing her speak eased him, and he stopped fighting and looked around for the first time seeing the predicament he found himself in.

"Baby?" Desmond asked, his tone dripping with contempt. "Baby? Sookie, it's true then? You have exchanged blood with this vampire?" Her eyes came back to him and he saw the fury there aimed at him. He gasped.

In all the centuries he had known her she had never looked at him with anything other than love and kindness. When they had removed her memories of being a SIN Agent he had believed they could go back to the way things had been before. How wrong he had been!

"Oh, Sookie. I never should have left you with him when we took your memories."

"You never should have taken my memories in the first place!" she fired back at him, sounding angry if weak. "I know you are behind FauX, Desmond. I know that you have been killing supernaturals to make this poison to sell for profit!"

"No, no my darling, you don't understand at all." He ran his hand through his hair then in frustration. "I am doing this to save the supernaturals!"

"Let me go, Desmond. Let us all go!" she pleaded, seeing Eric start to slip away again and barely holding on herself.

"I can't do that, Princess. This will work! I will find a way to change all humans into what we are, and save us from the kind of persecution we have seen the vampires subjected to since the Great Revelation!

"I will put an end to The Fellowship of The Sun once and for all and prevent others of their ilk from ever rising! I will stop the senseless destruction of this world that we all share and bring about an age of peace and harmony such as this world has never seen!" She looked into his eyes, they were the empty eyes of a mad man.

"Then Princess, you can take your rightful place as Queen and I will rule at your side, as I was always meant to do!"

What?

"You never knew did you? You never saw how much I loved you. Century after century I stood at your side and consoled you when you needed a friend. Each time you would greet a new suitor I would hold my breath dreading that this would be the one that you would accept, but none of them ever moved you.

"You always came to me, and I knew then that I held a place in your heart that no one else ever could! When you came to SIN it was a dream come true. I could shelter you and protect you while convincing Niall that it was for the best to let you stay with me!

"Oh, you were glorious, Susanna! Glorious! It was scary how good you were at being a SIN Agent. I thought it was pass, I thought you would lose interest that it would be too hard for you but no matter the challenge you rose to it, exceeding even my wildest expectations!

"You were Queen incarnate, Susanna, and I knew that I needed to give you a world that was truly worthy of you to rule! Your successes just proved to me again and again how you were meant to be mine!"

"You were like…a father to me, Desmond. Never did I see you as anything else."

"But this vampire you see as worthy of one such as you? You dare to sully yourself with his blood willingly?!" There was nothing she could say that would not make this worse. They were all completely at his mercy to make him angrier would not be of benefit.

But he was a telepath, so she couldn't lie to him either. Silence was the only honor she could offer him.

"IT'S TRUE! YOU LOVE THE VAMPIRE?" he jumped up then, his chair skittering back crashing into the table that held her vampire. She heard him grunt from the impact jarring the table and forcing the silver that much deeper into his flesh.

Desmond was standing beside her shaking with his rage, his hands clenching and unclenching as he thought of his next move. Summoning the last of her strength she slid into this thoughts seeking some advantage that could save them.

I should kill her for this mockery she had made of me! It would be so easy. He glanced at a tray by her head. Right here I have vampire and wolf FauX. I could inject her, it would be fitting to make her what she covets above my love.

She saw his hand reach out and pick up a needle, staring at it for a long moment before putting it back.

No, she just needs some time. She will come around in time.

But I am out of time, she thought, fading into the black again as he turned and fled from the room.

32XXXXXXXXXXXXX23

SLAP!

Sookie stirred feeling pain in her face.

SLAP!

"Wake up fairy bitch!" Sookie's eyes opened making her groan with the effort.

Hallow.

"Did you know how he felt about you?"

"Wh-What?"

"Desmond you whore, did you know that all of this was for you?"

And the crazy just keeps on coming.

She looked at Eric and found that more his blood was drained now. If she didn't stop this soon he would be truly dead.

"Bitch! Look at me! Did you know? I heard what he said to you! Did you fucking know that he planned all this for you?"

"N-no," she struggled to get her answer out and her mind tried sluggishly the think of plan. Hallow stepped back hitting the tray next to the table, knocking it closer to Sookie. She was so enraged that she didn't even notice.

"Fuck! I thought…we…he…ARGHHHH!" she screamed then and balled up in knot as the truth came over her. Apparently, Desmond had used her and this was just becoming evident to her.

"How dare he treat me this way!" She stood then and turned on her heel headed out the door to confront Desmond for his deception.

Sookie struggled to hang on to consciousness, and reached her hand out toward that tray that was so close. The iron dug in deeper and she hissed in pain and kept reaching.

"Sookie," Eric's voice was so weak she could barely hear him. Her pain had wakened him again. She kept her focus on getting that tray. Almost, just a little more. She heaved her whole body over a tiny bit on the table and felt her fingers brush it. A rush of adrenaline went through her weakened body, giving her that extra push she needed to get her fingers around the edge and start inching it toward her.

"Sookie," he said again, his voice more urgent now and he sussed out her plan. "No, Sookie, you can't!"

Just then the tray came close enough for her to get her hand around the closest syringe. She grasped it and pulled it over to table.

"Sookie!" he said again. "Please." She looked at him then. Tears made her vision blurry hiding his beautifully anguished face from her. She blinked and looked at him, thinking how very much she loved him, had loved, and would always love this totally perfect man who had shown her what it was to love.

"Eric, listen to me. I was born the night you found me and again when I awakened in your arms. You taught me what it was to love. I will always love you, my beautiful vampire."

"I know, Sookie, I love you, too. Please! There must be another way!"

"I will protect you."

Her face grim with determination, she jabbed the needle into her thigh and pressed the plunger.


	7. Magic

_Last time on FauX..._

_"__Eric, listen to me. I was born the night you found me and again when I awakened in your arms. You taught me what it was to love. I will always love you, my beautiful vampire."_

_"__I know, Sookie, I love you, too. Please! There must be another way!"_

_"__I will protect you."_

_Her face grim with determination, she jabbed the needle into her thigh and pressed the plunger._

**_FauX-Magic_**

She jerked the needle free of her leg and waited, taking a deep breath to prepare herself for the transformation. Her thoughts were racing back through the memories that she had seen in Eric's mind.

The mangled form of the FauX shifter, Sam, his name had been Sam, and he had died in mid-shift. She thought of DeCastro and wild rampage through village of Logrono.

_But I have something they didn't have_, she thought as the fire started to burn in her veins. _I have to save the man I love. I won't fail, no matter what comes!_

Her whole body was on fire now, and she worked to keep her screams inside. If they found her too soon all this would be for nothing. _I have been a supernatural my whole life. I may not have my memories, but I have my magic._

**I HAVE MY MAGIC!**

She opened herself then and let the fire sweep through her.

Eric watched her with blood tears running down his face. He could feel everything she was feeling, her determination, her confidence, her love for him and above all that her pain. He wanted more than anything to be able to take that pain from her

When he saw her start to shift form into a wolf, he knew what had been in the needle and he moaned for his beloved and her stubborn stupid perfect heart. "Sookie?"

She growled her response, grunting as she fought to control the change the injection was designed to trigger. She was so weak, and this was so risky, but he knew what she was hoping.

She was hoping that the FauX would remove her weakness to the iron chains that held her.

She was hoping his blood would stabilize her change.

She was hoping she could hold it back just long enough to free them both from the silver.

He hoped with her, and sent her what strength he had left, praying to whoever was listening that their hopes would not be in vain.

A moment later when she broke the chains, and rose from the table he knew their hopes had been rewarded. She stood for a moment shaking her head and trembling all over. Then she staggered to his side.

She removed the needle from his arm, freed him from the silver, and handed him the first bag of his blood before moving on to do the same for Godric. He drank quickly, knowing that recovering his strength was his main goal, even if his heart demanded otherwise. He had finished all the blood and felt his strength coursing through him again when she finished with Godric and came to stand before him.

Her eyes were glowing orange and her body was lit up from the inside with her magic. She was holding back the transformation, but only barely, and not completely. She had already lost the power of speech, but he saw what he needed to see in her eyes.

He reached out his hand to touch her face, making her growl her pleasure at his touch as her eyes closed for just a moment. She turned into his touch and kissed his palm. From the corner of his eye he saw Godric stand and finish the last of his blood, power and rage rolling off him in waves as he looked to them to see what was next.

Before he could think or move Sookie' growl deepened, and she dropped to the floor. Her glow intensified and a moment later she shifted for the first time. If Eric had blinked he would have missed it and found in place of his beloved a very large golden wolf with blue eyes.

Her head was nearly to his shoulder, her mouth a tangle of sharp teeth and death. He had never seen a Were this big, most were larger than normal wolves, but none stood nearly six feet tall when their paws were all on the ground. Fearlessly, he reached out his hand and rubbed her soft golden fur. Somehow, she was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

She stepped closer and nuzzled her face next to his, softly licking his face and then she stepped back and giving him a last look so full of love it made him ache, she ran through the doors after Desmond, Hallow and whoever else was waiting for them out there. Eric glanced at Godric and they followed at vamp speed.

Eric followed Sookie's scent which was still uniquely hers despite her new form. When he found her she had Hallow pinned against a wall, growling. Hallow, trying to get her head around what was happening, started chanting, her own eyes glowing indicating her own pending transformation. A second later in the corner stood a grey wolf almost the same size as Sookie's golden form. Sookie attacked, and the air was filled with snarling and sharp teeth.

At that moment Desmond came in and stopped frozen at the sight before him. He looked at Eric and Godric and realized who the golden wolf was. "NO!" he screamed, as though that would change what had happened. Eric moved faster than he had ever moved in his long life and snapped Desmond's neck before he could teleport away from the nightmare he had created. When his body hit the ground Hallow let out a piercing howl and attacked Sookie with renewed vigor.

Since her transformation Sookie had been seeing the world through a red haze that was driven more my instinct than by intellectual thought. It had brought with it the feeling of freedom that she had sought her entire life. There was only the prey, only the now, and the sweet taste of blood on her tongue.

Somewhere inside her she knew that Desmond was dead. She knew that Eric had killed him. She knew that she loved Eric, but it was all so far away. In front of her was her opponent, and it was fight or die.

When Hallow attacked her, trying to get to her throat and rip it out, she dove under the large grey wolf and let her pass over her furry body. She flipped in mid-dive and reached up with her long wolf claws eviscerating Hallow. When her blood and guts exploded onto the floor Sookie was already standing and watching as her opponent landed on her side and slid into the wall with her momentum, leaving a trail of blood and entrails behind her.

Hallow struggled to rise again, growling as though she wasn't already dead, Sookie dropped her head closer to the ground and bared her teeth, demanding that her opponent rise and fight again. When Hallow finally accepted what everyone else in the room knew already to be fact, she fell down and changed back to her human form. Sookie's chilling howl of victory split the air, making the hair on Eric's neck stand up.

_Is she totally gone?_ He moved toward her, his arm extended, a look of terrible hope on his face. Sookie backed up from him, hunkering down to leap and attack this new opponent.

"Sookie?" He called to her, his voice breaking. "Susanna?" He tried her other name. "Princess?" Any name, anything to remind her who she was.

When he said Princess she stood and looked at him with her head turned to the side. She stared for a long moment, and he thought he saw the flicker of something in her eyes. Memories? Love?

Her large golden body convulsed like something was trying to break out, and she howled in pain, making him howl with her because he could still feel her, just as he had before.

He felt her fear when she couldn't change back.

Sookie know the vampire before her. His scent that had always been so pleasant to her was now even more so, because with her new nose it was like she had never smelled him before, only places he had been.

She took a deep breath and tried again to become this Sookie-Susanna- Princess that he called for with such love and passion. She wanted to be that person again, to have him hold her close. Right behind that she caught a glimpse of them mating and she wanted that, too. Now with her new senses and new freedom she wanted to run with him, howl with him, love with him in the sacred moonlight.

No matter how much she wanted that, to be with him like that, it was not to be. She could not go back and his form was not her form. There a moment of deep pain and regret. She howled her pain so loud that Eric covered his ears.

She dropped down, resting her forelegs on the ground, her tail high in the air and looked at this man Eric, howling and growling her need to be free, asking him to be free with her.

Eric, who had never heard a single one of her thoughts before understood with perfect clarity none the less, and he felt his heart crack.

"I can't, Sookie. Please, come back to me!" She howled again, staying down, asking again in her new language for this man to come with her. She saw him sink to his knees, blood leaking from his eyes, his hand still out to her.

To anyone other than Eric her transformation was over when her physical form shifted, but he had been tracking her through the bond and he knew that she was still transforming. Every moment she stayed in this form the further her thinking rational mind slipped away. Every moment she stayed in this form the more wolf she became.

He was losing her second by second and he knew it. He felt the sense of freedom and sensation of being alive that flowed through her entire being. He felt her simplistic animal joy of her new form and despite the fact that his heart was taking yet another pummeling from this tiny girl that he had met only a few days ago, he also felt joy for her.

She had found the one thing that she wanted more than anything in this world.

Freedom.

She howled again, c_ome with me,_ she said to him.

"I can't Sookie. I can't come with you. Please come back to me, please…"

She rose then and walked to him, resting her blood soaked muzzle on his shoulder, licking his cheek softly before turning around and heading for the door. She stopped and turned back to look at him, and he felt the last of her rational self disappear, leaving only the magnificent golden wolf before him.

Her last thought when she looked at him was of love and longing and she expressed it in a sharp soul breaking howl and then she ran through the door and out into the night to find her new destiny.

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Godric called in his team to clean up the lab and catalogue what they found there. He reached out to The Council to inform them of what had happened and to let them know that a new leader for SIN would need to be selected. Through all that Eric sat still in the corner of the room, in down time, processing that he had met and lost the love of his undead life.

Godric took him home with him, and they were sitting in the room that they had all been abducted from not speaking when Eric finally blinked and looked around, becoming aware of his surroundings for the first time since Sookie had left him.

"What about Compton and Ravenscroft?"

"They were not at the lab, we have warrants out for them. My team is still tracking their financials. We have some promising leads."

"I want to go after them," Eric said rising from his leather chair by the fireplace.

"It's noon outside, so you will have to wait."

"First thing tonight."

"Are you sure."

"Someone has to pay for this."

Godric looked at his friend of over a thousand years. "What about Sookie?"

"She is gone."

"But you still feel her in the tie?"

"That's how I know. I felt her become completely wolf before she left. She wanted to come back, she t-tried to come back, but she couldn't." Godric thought for a moment.

"To our knowledge she is the first supernatural to ever take FauX. That in itself is unique, but she had also taken your blood, which she thought would stabilize the formula."

"Does any of that really matter?" Eric's tone was as cold and dead as he felt inside.

"Does it?"

"Oh, fuck you, Godric! I can't play these games with you now!" Eric's fists were in knots like his heart and he wanted very much to inflict the kind of pain he was feeling. That was why he needed Compton and Ravenscroft. Some fucking body had to pay for this!

"Old friend, I have never played games with you. As long as you are in this condition I can't sanction your hunt for Compton and Ravenscroft. You would be a danger not only to yourself but to any team I sent with you."

Eric unclenched his fists and dropped his head. "As always you are right, Godric. I quit."

When the sunset that evening Eric left Godric's home in a gust of wind that slammed the front door behind him.

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Eric found Ravenscroft in Majorca under the name Ginger Fowler. He staked her out in silver and let the sun burn her from the face of the earth. He was burned himself before he dug a hole and went to ground, but it was worth it to hear her screams when she burst into flames.

Seeing her face melt did nothing to fill the ache in his heart.

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He found Compton in Mississippi, hiding under the vampire monarch of that state. He paid Russell Edgington a million and half dollars for the right to kill him. He drained him to near death, as Desmond had tried to do to him and Godric, and then he let the rats gnaw on him for several days before giving him a few sips of his blood back. Then he set the rats free for another week.

Finally, he took to the swamp and let the gators pick over what the rats and left behind.

He pulled the remains of Compton from the water and then chained him to a tree to meet the sun. This time the forest offered enough coverage that he could stand to the side and watch to the end and not be burned himself.

_If I had more people to kill I could get really good at this_, he thought as Compton turned to smoking sludge.

_For you, beloved_, he thought as he went to ground in the muddy swamp. He could feel her somewhere out there in the world, here with him pounding through this veins like a heartbeat.

Though she would no longer know him, he would never forget her.

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A month later he was in Morocco watching The Bucket Game. He felt some mild amusement when they lost and filled the bucket to the brim. He was about to take a chance himself when the King of Fae pulled up a chair at this table and ordered a drink.

Eric looked at him, remembering their last conversation and how Sookie had defended him from this fairy.

_Maybe I won't need The Bucket Game after all._

"I think we can bring her back," Niall said, still not looking at him. Eric's eyebrow went up, but he didn't say anything. Niall turned to pin him with his gaze. "Godric told me what happened, and I think that it was because she used her magic to control the transformation that she was unable to change back." Eric's other eyebrow went up.

"The FauX was not designed to cause a permanent change, and the addition of your blood would have stabilized the change as you suspected, but it was the use of magic that made the change seem irreversible."

"And you know this how?"

"I've been studying Desmond's work since The Council was informed of his treachery and his demise. I believe I understand it and the magic that she used well enough to bring her back."

"And if you can't?" Niall reached into his pocket and brought out a slim black case. Eric opened it and saw a syringe filled with a golden liquid.

"Then you can try and join her."

"I have no magic."

"I do." Niall smiled then, and for just a moment he saw the resemblance between Sookie and her father.

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The golden wolf had claimed her territory in the Bodcau Wildlife Management Area to the northeast of Shreveport. Her size alone discouraged other wolves from infringing on her territory. She avoided humans completely, innately distrustful of them. She had been courted by several male wolves, seeking to bring her into their pack but they held no interest for her.

She had a mate. She knew that, and though she could remember nothing but his scent, he was the one she wanted.

The others were unworthy and she sent them packing, licking their wounds from crossing onto the land she had claimed as hers. She ran with the moon and sometimes she dreamed blue eyes and his scent. His scent was safety and love.

None but her one true mate would ever do.

She was crossing through the dark moonlit forest on the edge of her territory when two men appeared in a blinding flash of light. Slinking down behind a tree she let the breeze bring their scents to her.

MY MATE! She jumped to her feet. HE IS HERE!

His scent represented peace and safety and casting aside her instinct for self-preservation and the avoidance of humans she hurled herself toward the scent of her one true mate.

Eric heard her heart racing and her soft pads pounding the forest floor before he saw her running toward him. He had no idea whether she meant to attack or kill, but he was struck with one single thought. The same thought he had whenever he saw her.

**_So…fucking…beautiful!_**

Her howl of joy split the night just before she reached him, not slowing she tackled him, taking him to the ground, rolling over and over with him, licking his face, taking deep breaths of his scent into herself to reassure herself that he was indeed here at long last.

She heard him laugh as she licked him and some ache inside her that always been with her stopped.

They landed with her large furry body on top, her forepaws on his shoulders and her large golden head on his chest. His arms came around her large furry body and he held her close to him for a long moment.

"Sookie," he whispered, place a kiss on top of her furry head. "I have missed you so."

She yipped her response of agreement and pressed her head against his chest, her tail thumping against his leg in her pure wolfy expression of joy.

Niall cleared his throat behind them, and Sookie was immediately on her feet between this stranger and her mate, her teeth bared and her muscles bunched to attack.

"Well, this is familiar," Niall said, his tone light despite the fact that a large golden wolf was about to make him a snack. Eric rose to stand behind her.

"SUSANNA!" Niall called out, his voice rolling like thunder through the woods around them, and her large body convulsed.

"What did you do?" Eric asked, feeling her pain in their tie just as he had before.

"Blood calls to blood, vampire. Quiet now and let me do what we came here do to."

**_Susanna_**_,_ Niall said, slipping into her mind, looking for some trace of his elegant Fae daughter in the giant beast who stood before him. **_Susanna, do you know me?_** She shook her large head, trying to get the voice out of it. **_Susanna, it is your father._**

**_F-father?_** Her voice was faint to his mind, as though she were far away.

**_It's time to come back, daughter. Come back to me, come back to your vampire. He is lost without you._**

**_Eric? _**A little louder this time.

**_Yes, I found him ready to end his life. I fear what may become of him of you don't come back to us._** Her large body shook again, and she fell to the ground, glowing slightly. Eric saw Niall light up then as well, as he knelt beside her on the ground, reaching a hand out.

**_Come home, Susanna, my Princess._**

The pain was intolerable. She ran from it, deeper into herself. She heard Eric gasp behind her.

**_Eric!_** She called to him and tried to drag herself to him.

**_Susanna!_** Niall called out again in her mind. Eric seeing her struggle and feeling her pain knelt beside her, too, rubbing her large head, offering comfort. "Sookie?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

She howled, her whole body going taught, and in the middle her howl became a very feminine scream. Where the wolf had been was now his Sookie. He looked at her father, kneeling on the other side of her and saw tears in his eyes.

"Thank you," he said to the King of the Fae.

"It took us both to bring her back," Niall told him. Nodding, Eric picked her up, holding her close, kissing her forehead softly. Niall thought he could see perhaps what Susanna saw in this vampire, at least a little. He reached out and touched Eric, taking them all home in a blinding flash of light.


	8. Epilogue

_She howled, her whole body going taught, and in the middle her howl became a very feminine scream. Where the wolf had been was now his Sookie. He looked at her father, kneeling on the other side of her and saw tears in his eyes._

_"__Thank you," he said to the King of the Fae._

_"__It took us both to bring her back," Niall told him. Nodding, Eric picked her up, holding her close, kissing her forehead softly. Niall thought he could see perhaps what Susanna saw in this vampire, at least a little. He reached out and touched Eric, taking them all home in a blinding flash of light._

**FauX- Epilogue**

Eric was laid out on a chaise lounge in the high noon sun, his only protection his beautiful fairy lover and her magical blood. She had fallen asleep stretched out on top of him and was currently drooling a little on his chest.

It was absolutely the best feeling he had ever experienced.

They had come to his Jamaica compound after her transformation. The last month had been nothing but sun bathing and love. Sometimes, both at once, and those days, those beautiful priceless days were worth two thousand years of darkness to get here.

They would have been worth four thousand, but if no one was asking he wasn't offering. He gently rubbed her warm back, causing her to moan and snuggle into him more. He smiled and kissed the top of her head.

Her memories of their time together had returned with her from wolf form, and he now had back the fearless brave woman who had asked him if it was all right that she wanted him. The one who had offered herself to him, no guile, no intention other than loving him.

Getting Susanna back had been an impossible dream.

Getting Sookie back was more than he had ever let himself hope.

She could drool on him forever as long as she never left him again.

"I'm not drooling," she mumbled into his chest, her hand coming up to wipe her mouth.

"I didn't say you were, dearest."

"Telepath, hello?" she was sounding more awake now and he chuckled at her sass.

"You were dreaming," he told her, holding her tighter, trying to melt into her.

"Pffft! Eric Northman, you can't lie to a telepath!" She turned her head and resting her chin on his chest, batted her eyes at him, looking sleepy and serious, or maybe it was serious about being sleepy. Her cheek was pink where it had been resting against him as she napped in the sun.

"I would never try, Sookie."

"Yes you would, but it's only because you want to know if I'm paying attention."

"And are you?" he asked, thinking about how they had made love before her nap, sending images of her beautiful expression as she rode him to completion in the bright Jamaican sun.

"Oh," she said softly. "Yes," she shifted in his lap. "Definitely paying attention." She wriggled up his body and kissed him. "I want to see if I can inspire that same look on your face."

"I am confident that you can."

"I like that."

"Me, too."

They had been kissing for several minutes when the phone next to the lounge chair rang. He reached for it, already knowing it was Godric, the new head of SIN calling to check in and see if they were ready to come back to work yet.

"Hello, Godric," they said in unison, before Sookie went on to kiss his neck, leaving Eric to field questions from their new boss.

"Hello, Eric, Sookie!" came his cheery voice through the phone. "I have a case for you."

Sookie groaned in his neck, collapsing against him for a moment before blowing past it, and starting to blow in Eric's ear. He shivered in the sun, and ran his hand up her back, palm open, covering her in the way he knew she liked. He was rewarded with a tug on his earlobe and renewed efforts to distract him from Godric and his new case.

"You're going to like this one."

"I doubt it," she whispered in his ear.

"Oh, no, you will, Sookie."

"Stupid vampire ears," she moved on kissing him, a little louder making her subtle point that Godric was intruding on their personal alone time.

"What's the case, Godric?" Eric knew the sooner they listened the sooner they could get on with what they wanted to be doing right now.

"An industrious group of fairies have set up a strip club in Vegas and were doing quite well until the local vampire monarch sent his boys around to get a piece of the action. Now we are on the edge of full blown supernatural war on the Strip."

"Strip club," Sookie huffed. "Been there, done that."

"No, you misunderstand, it's a male strip club." Sookie's head popped up, the devil in her eyes.

"Really?" Godric laughed.

"Yes, I thought Eric might go undercover with you as backup and infiltrate the club."

"They'd let a vampire dance in their club?"

"Oh, yes. Race war aside, they are all about the bottom line. Once Eric struts his stuff, there is no way they would turn him down."

Sookie giggled, already picturing it. Eric rolled his eyes.

"We'll be there in three days," Eric told him, getting ready to disconnect the call.

"Alcide has the details, I'll let him know you'll be in touch." Eric set the phone down and turned back to Sookie who was still grinning.

"We need to practice," she said, moving in for another kiss.

"You want me to dance for you, lover?" She shivered in his arms, her eyes fluttering shut.

"I love it when you call me that," she told him, kissing him passionately, her hands going around his neck, one tangling itself in his hair. "Will you dance for me, Eric?"

"Any day. Every day. Forever," he whispered against her lips, his hands resting on her bottom, pulling her against his hard length as he thrust up with this hips gently.

"I love you," she told him, and he knew it was true, not only because he could feel it in their bond, he could feel it in her touch and hear it in her words. She shifted in his lap then, sliding his hard length into her body slowly, moaning her pleasure at feeling him buried deep inside her. "Forever," she said, looking deeply into his eyes as she started to move.

The End?

_32XXXXXXXXXXXX23_

_Thank you all for taking this journey with me. I had a great time writing these characters and creating this world. I like to think we may pop in and visit them again someday. I am sure that with all the trouble out there in the in the human and supernatural worlds our SIN Agents will have many, many adventures before they hang up their spurs and retire to someplace where they can focus on what matters to them most…each other._


End file.
